


The Alchemist

by Secchar



Series: The Divide [1]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Case Fic, Comedy, EXO Big Bang Round 1, Kai's a kumiho, M/M, Mentions of Death, Off-screen death, There’s semi-worldbuilding, established relationships - Freeform, maybe more lore building than anything, mentioned Baekhyun/Chanyeol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:49:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 21,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24186166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Secchar/pseuds/Secchar
Summary: Three Magic Users, A Keeper, and a Kumiho investigate a blood ritual.Written for the EXO Big Bang Event
Relationships: Do Kyungsoo | D.O/Kim Jongin | Kai, Kim Minseok | Xiumin/Oh Sehun
Series: The Divide [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1812094
Comments: 14
Kudos: 43
Collections: EXO Big Bang Writing Event





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Exo Big Bang Writing Fest for the Novella category.
> 
> Thanks to the mods for everything! Especially because I switched categories halfway through and completely changed the plot!
> 
> I wrote most of this is my brother's cookie cutter neighborhood. Can you tell?
> 
> If you’re interested in certain magical elements that I’ve used, I’ve drawn a lot of inspiration from fantasy books. If you ask about something, I can tell you the book I based it off of. Not all of the elements are from books though, so be warned.

Kyungsoo’s room is almost too normal considering his circumstances. It’s a generic wooden bed, a generic wooden wardrobe, and a generic wooden desk in a completely square room that’s strewn with partially(?) clean clothing. Directly across from Kyungsoo’s bed is a window that opens out onto a majestic evergreen tree that comes complete with its own monkey-looking monstrosity.

Beady red eyes make direct eye contact with Kyungsoo, who’s standing in front of the window on this beautiful sunny day. The sunlight goes a really long way to highlight how demonic the creature is. Its ramesque horns gleam dully in the morning light and its leathery wings puff out at the slight breeze blowing through the needles.

Kyungsoo doesn’t blink; just keeps making eye contact. The monkey monstrosity known as Edgar (the third unfortunately) blinks first its left eye then its right eye. Still Kyungsoo doesn’t blink. Edgar’s mouth is a horrible gash in a horrible face that widens to display horrible teeth ready to take a bite out of Kyungsoo’s face. A long lizard tongue snakes out and licks its right eye.

Kyungsoo grimaces. “Okay, that’s too much.” He grips the curtain that’s scrunched up to his left. “I’m going to close the curtain now.” Edgar doesn’t give any indication that its heard him.

Kyungsoo starts to pull the curtain across the window. “And I’m closing the curtain. And closing it and it’s closing and it’s almost completely closed and we’re almost there now and now it’s completely closed.” There’s a violent thump against Kyungsoo’s window. “And you flew into the window again because why wouldn’t you?”

Kyungsoo doesn’t open the curtain to see what happened. He knows what happened, and yet there’s a small part of him that wants to check on Edgar. But then he’d be playing right into those disgusting little hands.

He keeps the curtain closed and walks out of his room.

The route to the kitchen is almost mundane in its normality. He passes by the crack in the wall that likes to whisper at him (it really likes bracelets for some reason) before passing by Yixing, the house ghost, who greets him cordially before passing through the wall into the guest room so he can greet the new guests even though they will undoubtedly scream at his sudden appearance.

Kyungsoo hops onto the spiral staircase railing and slides down past the wall of Sentries. He lands lightly on his feet on the ground floor next to the painting of the first Sentry, a man who might as well be Kyungsoo himself except for the thin, red scar on his neck. It’s like looking in a mirror, and there’s no way that’s some kind of benign energy. He’s half convinced that it’s some kind of demon who will one day trap him in the painting and take over his life.

Kyungsoo salutes his ancestor sarcastically (because if death is coming, it’s coming) and moves into the kitchen. It’s almost too modern considering the antiquated, eccentric nature of the rest of the house, but modern kitchens are bigger, and despite which realm you hail from, you need to eat.

Kyungsoo’s moms, Yeonsoo and Char, are both poring over a newspaper that’s not in any recognizable human language. Baekhyun, Kyungsoo’s (Potential) Chosen One, is sawing through some eggs that are too charred to be any good, and Kai, his kumiho significant other, is watching Baekhyun with barely disguised disdain. Kyungsoo’s tempted to just ignore both of them and make himself some coffee, but, technically, Baekhyun is Kyungsoo’s responsibility, and he would have to deal with the disgusting aftermath of Baekhyun ingesting those eggs.

Almost sluggishly, (but completely apathetically) he holds out a palm. “Stop, Baekhyun. I’ll make you something else.”

“I don’t think they’re that bad,” Baekhyun replies, but there’s no conviction in his voice. Ever since he’s moved into the House, he’s tried to develop basic household skills, but cooking is something that refuses to develop.

“I think this is what they used to scrub barnacles off of ships,” Kai says with a delicate sniff before slapping the offensive plate out of Baekhyun’s hands. The plate flies too smoothly into the garbage can.

Baekhyun scowls at him. “No one understands your outdated references, old man.”

There’s a tremor in the air as Kai reveals enough of his power to show Baekhyun that he’s barking up the wrong tree. “I am a 20,000-year-old Fox Spirit. I have seen civilizations fall and had mighty rulers bow at my feet.” There’s a weird echoing quality to Kai’s voice that is more annoying than intimidating. Kyungsoo sighs when Kai’s temper tantrum causes on of the eggs to roll off the counter and splatter on the ground.

“And you can’t work the fucking coffee maker,” Baekhyun snipes back. He pulls a tomato out of the fridge and rolls it towards Kyungsoo in a silent plea to make him an omelet.

“Language, Baekhyun,” Char reprimands, but there’s no heat behind it. “And, Kai, clean up the egg.” While Baekhyun and Kai were arguing, the air in front of Char and Yeonsoo had quivered before dropping a small scroll sealed with wax: a missive from The Council.

“Kai started it,” Baekhyun complains.

Instantly Kai’s oppressive energy dies away as he whips around and whines, “I did not.” For all of his years, Kai’s only recently gained enough power to have a human form in the last 1,000 years, making him very much a child. Kyungsoo snorts at his tone while he flips Baekhyun’s omelet. He can almost see Kai whip around to glare at him. Without turning around, he points to the broken egg with his spatula.

Kyungsoo plates the omelet and slides it over to Baekhyun before turning to his moms. Like him, they’re immune to some of the weirder things that slide across their desk, but both of them have a furrow between their brows. He doesn’t worry though. He can handle anything that’s required of him, and since Chunsoo and his wife are currently chasing after some fucking manticore in Greece right now, anything that needs to be taken care of falls to him. He’s just going to need coffee before he’s required to go traipsing around after something that is most likely going to want to kill him.

Kyungsoo slides onto the stool next to Baekhyun and pours himself a cup of coffee from the carafe. Baekhyun lifts his own cup as if he’s going to take a sip, and whispers, “Yixing told me that Kai stood outside of your door last night.” This is supposed to be for Kyungsoo ears only, but Kai’s right there, so it’s a useless endeavor. His ears flick at Baekhyun’s words, but otherwise he gives no indication that he’s heard.

Kyungsoo cocks his head in an exaggerated facsimile of confusion. “I wonder why my sig would be outside my room at night. It really is a mystery.”

Baekhyun wrinkles his nose and turns away from him. “Gross.”

Jokes aside, Kyungsoo does take stock of Kai’s appearance. Aside from having fox ears and a tail, Kai’s appearance is almost deceptively human, but now under close scrutiny, Kyungsoo can see that his nails are thickening into claws and his jaw is slightly too long for a human face. A quick glance at Kai’s tail shows that it’s widening, a clear indication that it’s trying to split into nine.

Kyungsoo takes his first sip of coffee and holds it in his mouth as he thinks. Kai only fed off of him a month ago, and while Kyungsoo’s not extremely worried about Kai taking all of his energy, he is worried about the implications of Kai needing to feed sooner and sooner.

“Kyungsoo,” Char calls out. Kyungsoo swallows his coffee and looks up. Char waves the paper in front of him. “It’s a mission. There’s been reports of something haunting a school in America.”

“We don’t do ghosts,” Baekhyun interjects. “That’s usually the church’s prerogative.” Kyungsoo shoots Baekhyun an annoyed look, even though Baekhyun’s right. The church has a special claim on ghosts since they have “human souls”. The Council only deals with non-human entities.

“They called the church. A priest came out and performed an exorcism. Three days later, the pet rabbit of a class showed up dead, and then a week after that, the body of a student, completely drained of its blood.”

“No blood left at all?” Kyungsoo asks.

“None.”

Kyungsoo tries to think through every blood consuming entity he can remember, but none that come to mind completely drain the body. “Can’t be a vampire. Any marks on the body?”

“A single puncture wound.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Baekhyun mutters to himself. Kyungsoo has to agree. Biting and sucking is the quickest way to extract blood, and that doesn’t jive with a single puncture wound. A single puncture wound sounds too—

“A User collecting blood for a ritual,” Kai offers. “Since it’s a student that died, they’re young and there are countless rituals that demand the blood of the young. It could be someone petitioning a patron. Some of the older second gens accept blood.”

Char and Yeonsoo look at each other and nod, clearly pleased with Kai’s deduction. “Yes,” says Yeonsoo, “that’s what we were thinking too. It’s against The Treaty to petition those who accept blood, but if this person is willing to kill a child, then The Treaty means nothing to them.”

Kyungsoo shakes his head, partly because he’s not sold on the idea, and partly because it pisses him off that Kai figured it out before him (Kai sticking his tongue out at him doesn’t help with this). “That doesn’t explain the haunting.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Char agrees. “Which is why we want you to take Minseok and Sehun when you go to investigate.”

The reaction is instantaneous. Baekhyun, Kai, and Kyungsoo all groan in various levels of exasperation.

“No, don’t make us take the lovers. All they do is make googly eyes at each other. Minseok almost got himself killed because he wasn’t paying attention to that fucking dragonborn son of a bitch.” Baekhyun pauses before adding, “And Sehun’s a dick.”

“Language,” Char admonishes, but she’s clearly too amused to give the statement much weight.

“It’s worse than that. Sehun uses his magic regardless of the setting. Do you know how many humans I’ve had to knock out to keep our secret?” Kai grouses, but Kyungsoo’s pretty sure that Kai likes knocking humans out.

“Both of them together is a nightmare. The moment we’re in any danger, they’re just constantly worried about the other over themselves. Do you know how hard it is to deal with two people who are just constantly running in front of the other? It’s almost impossible to get a clear shot,” Kyungsoo adds in thinking of the incredibly memorable time Baekhyun had been trying to take out a Chimera only for Minseok to have jostled his arm as he tried to jump in front of Sehun. It’s a miracle that they weren’t killed.

“We still don’t know exactly what we’re dealing with. You’re going to need Minseok’s barrier magic in case of a surprise attack, and Sehun’s the most skilled User in the house. It’s better to be safe than sorry, boys. I’m going to have to insist that you take both of them.” Yeonsoo puts a sense of finality into her tone. There’s no arguing now, which is fine. All of them were complaining on principle. Yes, Sehun and Minseok are the worst, but they are more than worth their trouble.

They nod easily.

Kyungsoo sighs heavily, feeling the weight of responsibility settle heavily on his shoulders. “Alright, we’ll head out in an hour. Baekhyun, go let the lovers know.”

Baekhyun looks like he wants to argue, but Kyungsoo shoots him a sharp look. Baekhyun closes his mouth and stomps off, not out of any real anger, but to give the lovers enough warning that someone’s coming and they should look respectable.

Kyungsoo collects his and Baekhyun’s dishes and moves to the sink to wash them. Kai comes up and puts his coffee cup under the spray.

“Your room,” he whispers. Kyungsoo just nods and adds more dish soap to the water. It takes a short time to wash them all, and before long, he’s trudging back up the staircase to his room. Edgar, completely revitalized from smashing into Kyungsoo’s window, is sitting on the second floor bannister, grooming himself. He grins wickedly at Kyungsoo and slithers his tongue at him. Kyungsoo’s almost too apathetic to flick him off, but he can’t let Edgar think he enjoys their interactions.

Kai’s standing outside his door, but now he has two tails. Kyungsoo bites the inside of his cheek. Now he’s a little concerned. He didn’t think Kai’s energy loss was this rapid. Kai might have to start feeding off more humans the old-fashioned way, but even then, there’s a limit to how many missing people the police are willing to overlook before they come knocking.

“I’ve told you before, you can just go in. In fact, I’d prefer it. It attracts too much attention when you’re just lurking out here like a serial killer. People know we’re together. They expect you to go in.”

“It’s your room. I don’t want to intrude on your space,” Kai responds gruffly, coming into the room only after Kyungsoo has walked in first. He closes the door and locks it behind him.

Kyungsoo does appreciate the sentiment. When you live in a house that has so many entities coming and going, who all have different personalities and cultures, the idea of having a space where you don’t have to consider all of that is nice but not practical. Despite not being a Sentry yet, Kyungsoo’s a Keeper, which means he has to readily be available to any of the people who come through the door. This thought process is elegantly boiled down to, “It’s fine if it’s you. Just come in.”

Kyungsoo hears a noise of discontent from behind him, but nothing more. He’s not going to force Kai to do something he doesn’t want, so he lets it go and lays down on to his bed. Kai stands almost awkwardly to the side while Kyungsoo arranges his pillow and his limbs for maximum comfort. When he’s done, he pats the bed on either side of him like he’s trying to get the attention of a cat. (He once had a cat, but a lot of species that come through the house understand the concept of hunting, but not the concept of pets.) Kai looks rather put out to be summoned over so dismissively, but he comes over all the same.

There’s always something thrilling about Kai crawling on top of him even if he knows it’s not going to lead to more fun activities. It’s not like it’s the death sentence that Kai treats it as. They are going to make out, so Kyungsoo doesn’t see why Kai doesn’t treat it with the same carefree energy they usually do. What does it matter that this time Kai’s feeding off of him? It doesn’t matter to him. He knows that Kai won’t go too far. It’s physically impossible.

Kyungsoo is a true child of The Divide, born in the Great Tree itself, and, as such, is filled with the roiling energy of such a place. Unfortunately, Kyungsoo is the first child of The Divide in many generations to have no magical ability, giving him no way to expend such incredible energy. It's a match made in Hell. At various times, Kyungsoo has suffered near death experiences (in his own opinion) from when the energy would overwhelm his body. This often resulted in him lying under a cold shower for hours, water sizzling as soon as it touched his body.

Kai’s appearance had resulted in a mutually beneficial experience. Kyungsoo’s excess energy would be consumed by Kai, a kumiho who could only maintain power by consuming human energy in some form or fashion.

It’s an equivalent exchange. They shouldn’t worry about it.

That said, it seems like a cruel joke on the spirits parts to make Kai’s only survivable form of energy consumption be through French kissing (especially because Kai is rather shy about this kind of thing and Kyungsoo can be more than a little jealous). As always, when Kai’s tongue licks delicately across his mouth, Kyungsoo only barely opens his mouth to allow the _yeowoo guseul_ into his mouth. Kai pushes in further to allow the glass marble to make as much contact as possible. Immediately, Kyungsoo feels intoxicated. As a non-magic user in a very magical world, he made up for the deficit by studying every single bit of lore and knowledge available to those in the House, but the marble offered more. It offered everything. Everything Kyungsoo could ever hope to learn was promised by such a small crystal-clear glass bead, if only he swallowed it.

Kyungsoo whines against Kai’s mouth and pushes the marble back into Kai’s mouth. Kai keeps it in his mouth only long enough to absorb the energy it’s collected from Kyungsoo, and so it goes. Kyungsoo waiting until the last possible second before he succumbs to his desires and then pushing it back into Kai’s mouth. Kai pushes deeper and deeper with each exchange until Kyungsoo’s reacting physically.

With a gasp, Kyungsoo pushes Kai back and rolls over onto his side in some way to control himself. He’s shivering, much too aware of how his lips are stinging. A glance at Kai reveals that Kai’s teeth and jaw have shrunk into a normal human range and he now only has one tail. Kai’s consumed enough energy to retain his form, and Kyungsoo doesn’t feel the prickle of magic that lives constantly under his skin as much.

“I’ll, uh, leave you to prepare then,” Kai says after an uncomfortable long pause. Kyungsoo rolls over and waves a hand at Kai for him to come closer. Kai looks a little wary, but after a moment of hesitation, he does come closer. Kyungsoo props himself up on one hand and wraps the other around Kai’s neck. This kiss is much more chaste, but Kai relaxes into it with almost giddy eagerness.

When Kyungsoo breaks it off, he lifts Kai's chin and makes direct eye contact with him. “I’d like it if you slept in my room tonight.”

Kai ducks his head and bumps it gently against Kyungsoo's. It’s as much an agreement as Kyungsoo can expect right now.

After Kai leaves, Kyungsoo waits a few minutes before getting up. He stretches out his body until he feels himself wake up a bit more. He always feels lethargic after an exchange and considering Kai took a decent amount of energy, it’s a miracle he didn’t fall asleep. He rolls his neck out and hums happily. He hadn’t really been paying attention, but given how relaxed his body is, he guesses he was close to an overload. That makes sense, they’ve been having more visitors in the house which means more energy in the Divide, which is all being conducted through his body.

Speaking of visitors, the closet door opens and out pops Chihiro, the little Baku who likes to live in Kyungsoo’s closet. She yawns cutely, her sharp tusks gleaming threateningly, and stretches out her trunk. She blinks her eyes sleepily before smiling at Kyungsoo, small tiger paws kneading the ground. Kyungsoo’s not fooled.

“You should have told us that you were here. You know how Kai is about being watched.”

“Kai should have remembered that I live here, and it’s weird to pop out and be like ‘excuse me, I do not wish to intrude on your makeout sesh’. Be honest with me, would you be able to go through with it if I did that? Besides it’s not like it’s the worst thing I’ve seen you two do.” Chihiro trundles over to his bed and makes herself comfortable on his pillow.

Kyungsoo wrinkles his nose because she’s right, but he doesn’t like it. So, like with most things that he doesn’t like, he elects to ignore it and instead goes snooping through his closet to find his investigating supplies. He groans audibly when he sees that all of his clothes are on the floor in a suspiciously nest-shaped formation.

“Chihiro!”

“It’s a wood floor, Kyungsoo. I’m not sleeping on it without something soft. What are you even complaining for? You wear the same four white shirts and jeans anyway. I haven’t seen you wear anything from the closet since I’ve been here.”

Kyungsoo extracts a long thin black jacket from Chihiro’s nest and holds it up triumphantly. “I’m going to wear this.”

Chihiro sneers at him as best as an elephant can.

The jacket goes on pointedly before he resumes searching for a flashlight, and given that Baekhyun is coming with him, a first aid kit.

After a sufficient time of Kyungsoo sweeping clothes aside in his closet, Chihiro comments, “You were thrashing in your sleep last night.”

Kyungsoo hums absent-mindedly. Nightmares are rare for him given what he does, but occasionally he’ll get one. “So why didn’t you eat it?”

“You weren’t having a nightmare.”

“Overload?” Kyungsoo asks, still only paying partial attention. Energy overloads aren’t extremely uncommon for him. It’s why he has the exchange with Kai after all. It is a little weird he didn’t notice he had one last night or didn’t even realize he was close to begin with. It's also weird that he had an overload and still had so much energy when he did the exchange just now. He shakes his head. It's just because there are more guests in the house. He shouldn't overthink this.

“Yeah, but you didn’t wake up.”

There’s a coil of rope in the far back corner that’s oddly slick. Kyungsoo doesn’t think about it as he stuffs it into his backpack. “I don’t always wake up for them. Sometimes they’re just small.” That’s not exactly true. He usually wakes up no matter what. Guests in the house.

“You were thrashing a lot for a small overload.” Chihiro’s words are always a little garbled because of her tusks.

“Get to your point, Chi. I’ve got to go soon.”

“I think your body’s getting too used to the energy surges. Hear me out,” she says quickly when he shrugs, “when you were in your 100s, you used to wake up at the slightest loss of equilibrium and then spend the next two hours under the shower trying to stop your body from overheating. Now you’re sleeping through it. I think there’s a very good chance that your body has stopped treating the overloads as seriously as it should. I’m worried one day you might not wake up.”

“It’s just because we’ve had more guests in the house. The Divide is just compensating for the energy to keep the equilibrium.” There’s some fucking western sword wrapped in his old sweatshirt. He doesn’t know what that’s about, but he can’t keep it in here. He throws it behind him as a reminder to take it when he leaves.

“That’s all the more reason to worry. The Divide shouldn’t have to be compensating. It’s a place composed entirely of energy; an intersection for every realm, both known and unknown. In theory, it’s boundless in terms of energy acceptance. It shouldn’t have to be compensating even if there are more travelers.”

‘In theory’ is such an interesting phrase because it means jack shit. ‘In theory’ Kyungsoo should have magic as a Keeper of The Divide. ‘In theory’ these beings of mythology shouldn’t exist. ‘In theory’ there should be a Sure Chosen One, not just all these Potential Chosen Ones. ‘In theory’ means nothing. Everything’s possible. In the past year alone, Kyungsoo’s had to edit the codex because it’s turned out that a thing a mythical being shouldn’t be able to do is, in fact, able to do it. Nothing’s off the table.

“The world goes through turbulent times. It’s just the balance between order and chaos. As entropy increases, things will change.” Kyungsoo can feel himself losing interest in the discussion. Dying is a very real threat any Keeper has to face, but he’s faced it so much, he’s rather blasé about the entire thing. At this point, he almost wants to die for the variety.

“The Divide isn’t the world. I mean think about it. Baekhyun’s your fourth Chosen One. There was a 110-year gap between your first and your second and then 70 between your second and third but less than 2 years between the third and Baekhyun. Things are changing, but everything is leading up to the next apex point. Your energy overloads included. You need to be careful. Baekhyun won’t be able to navigate the prophecy without you.”

“If he gets that far,” Kyungsoo mutters under his breath. Given the 3rd Chosen one’s grisly end, and Kyungsoo’s unwitting participation in bringing it about, there’s a good chance Baekhyun won’t even make it to the prophecy. Louder, “We don’t even know if it’ll result in my death. Who knows? Maybe I’ll become a human bug zapper.”

Chihiro doesn’t laugh at his joke. “Kai’s energy is also low, and now you’ve got the makings of a blood ritual on your hands. The Turning Point’s coming soon. There's bad energy gathering. I'm swimming in nightmares. Just be careful.”

Kyungsoo shoulder his backpack, making a valiant effort not to stagger under its weight. He smiles sardonically, “I’ll be careful if you stop spying on me.”

“It wasn’t on purpose! There was no way to do it that wasn’t awkward! This is my room too, you know,” Chihiro squawks indignantly, but Kyungsoo’s already left.

There’s something about watching people making out that just seems like a trainwreck; Kyungsoo just can’t look away. Minseok and Sehun have been eating each other’s faces for over 10 minutes now, and there’s no end in sight given that breathing isn’t an issue. Kyungsoo doesn’t know how it isn’t an issue, but somehow neither Minseok nor Sehun have broken apart for a breath since Kyungsoo’s stepped onto the back porch.

Baekhyun’s on the same wavelength. “Do you think Sehun’s just magicking air in and out of their lungs or something? If not, their lung capacity is amazing, and I’d love to learn it. Who knows what trials I’ll have to face as the Chosen One? Maybe there’s a water temple.”

“For the last time,” Kyungsoo sighs, “this is not _Legend of Zelda_. There are no temples, and there are no trials. That’s too oriented. I wish it were that fucking easy.” As it stood, Kyungsoo was no closer to deciphering that fucking prophecy, and was only marginally sure that the Chosen One had some kind of light ability. (The word “marginally” being used loosely of course. Prophecies loved metaphors and light was almost always a metaphor for something. When The Council assigned him they were clearly hoping that the prophecy was being straightforward. His first three Chosen Ones hadn't been Light Users, and that hadn't worked in their favor, so why not try the obvious approach?)

Baekhyun leans in uncomfortably close to Kyungsoo’s personal space and leers.

“Promise?”

Against his own accord, Kyungsoo feels his lips thin and turns away because they both know that he can’t fucking promise. Just last month they had a mission that made them investigate some creepy fucking house that clearly had a creepy-ass forest theme going on.

“That’s what I thought,” Baekhyun says way too smugly. Oh, how Kyungsoo wishes he could punch him. To somewhat reduce the urge to rearrange Baekhyun’s face, Kyungsoo turns around and leans over the railing to look out over the “woods” surrounding the house.

They’re not really woods. They’re the greatest illusion this side of the portal. The trees appear real to any of the seven senses, but they’re not. Anyone who walks in the woods is doomed to come out exactly where they entered. There’s no escaping the Divide without one of the family knowing.

The backdoor squeaks open and Kai slips through the small opening, his face dragging against the varnished wooden edge to scent it. Kyungsoo clicks his tongue. You cannot take the fox out of the boy no matter what. But given the other way he might scent things, this is preferable for sure.

He claps his hands and is glad that that’s all it takes for Minseok and Sehun to detangle themselves from each other. Sehun steps behind Minseok to wrap his arms around his waist; Minseok’s got a gleam in his eye that’s daring Kyungsoo to say something about it as if this is what Kyungsoo would find offensive instead of the cannibalism that he just witnessed.

Kyungsoo holds up the paper charm his moms gave him. “It’s really simple. There’s been some supernatural activity in an elementary school in Texas. We think, based on the evidence, that it’s someone gathering materials for a blood ritual. We’re obviously going to find out if that’s the case. We’ve been given strict orders by The Council to apprehend whoever is doing it. They should be relatively unharmed.” This last statement is directed at Sehun who has thrown no less than 20 people against hard surfaces with his power. Sehun merely shrugs at the pointed look. To be fair, all of those people had been criminals according to The Treaty, but it’s the principle of the thing.

“What if it’s a human with no connection?” Baekhyun asks.

“Well then it’s still a murderer,” Sehun replies, “and I think we should take him out.”

“No, no, no,” Kyungsoo replies just as quickly. You’ve got to stop Sehun in his tracks with this sort of thing. “If it is just a human then we notify the Council Liaison on the force and hand them over.”

“We won’t kill murderers on principle, but we’ll kill Chosens right and left,” Sehun mutters. Reactions are quick to come in.

“Sehun,” Kyungsoo admonishes tightly while Kai growls low and deep in his throat. Even Minseok jabs him sharply in the stomach with his elbow, which makes Sehun’s “artfully” placed baseball cap fall to the ground. Baekhyun looks around confusedly at the quick change in tone.

Kyungsoo coughs lightly to buy time to recompose himself. “Whatever it is or whoever it is, they will be given to someone not us. There will be no killing on our part. In the first place, we represent The Divide, the only truly neutral realm, and in the second, I will have to fill out paperwork. Understand?”

All of them nod in varying degrees of sincerity ranging from Baekhyun, who looks like he holds the weight of the world on his shoulders, to Sehun, who got distracted halfway through his own nod by the mole behind Minseok’s ear and only finished the nod because it would have been more effort to abort it. It’s good enough. Kyungsoo shoulders his pack and leads them down the steps into the woods.

“Stay close so you don’t get lost,” Kyungsoo adds belatedly, but it’s an unneeded warning. Every new houseguest is instructed to go out into the woods, so they can truly experience how impenetrable the Divide is. Kyungsoo, as someone born in The Divide, is allowed the freedom to navigate accurately through the illusion. The woods have always been navigable for Kyungsoo and, as a result, when he was little didn’t understand why Yixing could never find him in the woods during hide and seek.

There’s no rhyme or reason to Kyungsoo’s knowledge as to what makes the path clear to him. There’s nothing to distinguish the right way. The trees don’t look realer, there’s no yellow brick road or line of will o’ wisps to follow. Just a deep tug in his heart towards The Tree.

There’s no proof of this, but Kyungsoo thinks that distance doesn’t work in a conventional way in The Divide, and it might even make itself shorter for him because it only takes a few minutes until Kyungsoo sees The Tree.

The Tree, said by some to be the power source across all realms, but undeniably the source of The Divide, does nothing to disguise its magnificence. A honeycomb pattern of real wood twines itself up a mile high into an umbrella of lush green willow strands that reach to ground. In the protection of the tree, it’s completely still. Running up in the honeycomb spaces between the wood are thick crystal-clear panes of hardened energy. No two panes show the same view when looked through. Each one shows a different realm that is connected through The Divide.

There’s one pane that swirls with murkiness and in the pane is a small ledge that’s been obviously carved. Kyungsoo places the small paper charm on the ledge and watches it burst into flame. There’s a heartbeat where nothing happens, but then the image in the panel to the left swirls in on itself and is replaced by an image of a dimly-lit place that could easily be imagined as the setting for a horror movie. Kyungsoo wrinkles his nose. Why does the portal always choose super creepy places as the connection?

“Everyone, hold hands,” Kyungsoo commands holding his hand out to Baekhyun who’s crowded almost uncomfortably close to him. Kai is leering at him with very sharp, non-human teeth. Baekhyun visibly flinches when Kai grabs his hand. Kyungsoo frowns at him.

Sehun and Minseok are holding more than hands, so Kai settles for gripping Minseok’s shoulder and hoping that Sehun is plastered on Minseok enough to stay together during the ride.

Kyungsoo touches the pane with its dimly-lit image and the world falls away.


	2. Chapter 2

Tumbling gracefully from a portal that opens mid-air is not a skill anyone who’s not Kai has, so Kai lands gracefully, his tail elegantly moving to balance him out. Kyungsoo lands on gritty tile and only vaguely has time to think how disgusting that is before Baekhyun lands heavily on his lower back. He has a little longer to wonder if his pelvis is broken before the lovers fall on his head. The ringing and general flashing pain don’t allow him to have any thoughts on this development.

Quite uselessly, Sehun creates a mini tornado that pushes Kyungsoo upright which only fuels the pain in his head and makes him want to vomit. Minseok, to his credit, gets the icepack out of Kyungsoo’s backpack and crushes it until it begins to grow cold. He pushes the rapidly chilling pack against Kyungsoo’s rapidly forming bump and holds it there until Kyungsoo waves him away. The ice pack dims most of the pain, but he waits until the black spots fade before slowly getting up.

Minseok and Sehun are kneeling in front of him, holding hands even though they’re essentially flush from knee to shoulder. Minseok looks concerned, and Sehun’s (badly) feigning concern. Kai’s just straight glaring at him.

“For a Keeper, you’re not good at keeping yourself safe,” Kai taunts. He’s such a mean significant other.

Kyungsoo isn’t speechless. He’s got so much to say to that little tidbit of stupidity that his brain overloads with all of the possibilities. It doesn’t even make sense. In the first place, Keeper isn’t even a good word for what Kyungsoo’s role is. He’s pretty sure that the word came about because it sounds cooler than Babysitter for the Realms. In the second place, what kind of logic is that? You can swap out any sort of word with that kind of logic. For a keeper, you’re not good a goalkeeping. For a keeper, you’re not very good at keeping your room clean (Admittedly, his moms have used this one on him before). For a keeper, you’re not very good at keeping your mouth shut (Baekhyun said this one).

The overload is too much for his brain, and so Kyungsoo’s sure he can only manage to look very confused, which given his maybe concussed state, isn’t comforting. He looks around for Baekhyun as a way to ground himself.

Because Baekhyun’s the worst, he’s not even remotely concerned about Kyungsoo even though he’s part of the reason why Kyungsoo is in pain. He’s staring around at the dimly-lit grocery store the portal dropped them in.

It’s clearly an abandoned grocery store that is now even odder for being dimly-lit. They’re in the frozen food aisle where half of the doors are hanging open. It’s impossible to see clearly more than a few meters in any direction, but that’s plenty of space to see that the floor is truly as disgusting as it felt. It’s covered in dust, dirt and dead bugs. Kyungsoo barely stops the shudder that rolls through him.

“Wow,” Baekhyun says softly, “I hate it.” Then louder to the rest of the group or maybe just Kyungsoo because Kyungsoo’s the scholar of the group, “Why does the portal always drop us in these creepyass places? Why not a meadow? Why not the inside of a bank vault?”

“That’s the attitude you want from your Chosen One,” Kyungsoo remarks drily.

“The people want a lawfully good Chosen One? In this economy?”

“Please, like you were lawfully good to begin with,” Sehun retorts. He’s swung an arm around both Minseok and Kai and is steering them over to where Baekhyun and Kyungsoo are. Minseok’s got a comforting arm around Sehun’s waist, which makes Kyungsoo remember that Sehun, oddly enough given his circumstances, is deathly afraid of the dark and ghosts (Yixing excluded because he’s a sweetheart). It’s a good reminder that they need to keep moving.

“The most malleable places in the universe are those with the least energy attached to them, so places like hotels, supermarkets, restaurants, inns where people only spend small amounts of time, are ideal points to have portal drops since they’re not as attached to the world.” Kyungsoo has more to say because portals are truly the most interesting piece of natural magic there is and can only be activated from The Divide or someone from The Divide, which makes it even more interesting. Kyungsoo’s done lots of research on them, and he’s willing to keep talking about them, but one of the lights flickers ominously. They all freeze to stare at the offending light as if daring it to do it again, and it does.

“There shouldn’t be power in this place,” Minseok says thoughtfully, if a little late to the game. Kyungsoo can feel the pulse of energy he sends out over the place, one of the more unique facets of his ability. Kyungsoo places a firm hand on Baekhyun’s back, a small sign that Kyungsoo might need Baekhyun to use his sling sooner rather than later.

Minseok frowns, “There’s only a slight discrepancy in the energy. I think it’s a ghost. Most likely recently deceased.”

Kyungsoo grins easily. A ghost is not their problem. “We’ll leave it then. Let’s go. We shouldn’t waste any more time. Kai, if you please.”

Kai does not look pleased to be leading the pack, but obediently begins leading them out of the supermarket. On the bottom of the missive from The Council had been an energy signature of the deceased child. Kai would have been able to track the energy signature blind if he had to.

The ghost, assuming it’s generated enough energy to do more than flicker lights, doesn’t bother them. Outside, Kyungsoo spares only a passing glance at the outside of the supermarket. The sign is still in good condition and the windows, though boarded, don’t show any sign of vandalism. The market is recently closed then, but the ghost itself has solidified enough to be able to mess with the lighting. It doesn’t exactly bode well that there’s such a high intensity of energy at a portal drop.

The supermarket is located just outside of what Kyungsoo can only describe as an idyllic American neighborhood: a bunch of cookie cutter houses with too green lawns. Sehun, perhaps a little unnerved by the creepiness of the similarity starts sending out buffets of wind to upset a plethora of garden gnomes that every house seems to own. Kyungsoo can’t really blame him. The garden gnomes are a little unsettling.

But for the sake of propriety, “Sehun, stop that. We’re trying not to draw attention to ourselves. The neighborhood’s probably already on edge because of the dead kid.”

“The younger they are, the more the death affects the community. We need to be respectful,” Baekhyun adds. The words are good and diplomatic, but he’s got that smug look of superiority on his face when he explains the human realm’s culture. It means nothing to Sehun who would rather die than show Baekhyun any consideration.

“One of us has fox ears and a tail. I think there’s no stopping drawing attention to ourselves.”

“We’re close,” Kai says suddenly, cutting off anyone’s attempt to reply. His ear pricked to alertness. “We’re still in the neighborhood.”

Baekhyun hears the unsaid question and happily answers it. “In big subdivisions, it’s almost like a small town. It’s why the supermarket’s so close. They can also have pools, parks and even schools all within the perimeter. I think some families find it preferable to have a school within the safety of the neighborhood.”

“That would point to a particularly high density of children here, wouldn’t it.” There’s no inflection. Minseok’s not asking.

Kyungsoo clicks his tongue before he even realizes it. Minseok’s right. That does mean a higher density of children. There’s a very good chance that whoever is doing this won’t even stay at the school for their next victim. The police and The Council have done a very good job of keeping this under wraps with various vague reports of a freak accident, but even they won’t be able to keep people calm if a second child turns up dead.

“How far away are we?”

“I’d say less than a kilometer. The signature’s getting fainter, and I don’t know why. It hasn’t been long enough for it to fade. If anything, it should be getting stronger because people are mourning the kid.”

Energy consumption is an ability of almost every supernatural being to varying degrees, so there’s no way Kyungsoo can make a guess as to what’s causing the fading signature. It could be benign or malevolent. Either way, it’s worrying.

The school is very easy to find in such a uniform neighborhood. It’s big and low to the ground with two playgrounds on either side of it. Kyungsoo’s not super familiar with American culture, but he thinks the building is ugly for a school for children. Its color scheme is sky blue and dirty grey painted on aluminum siding with random dots of red to signify air vents. He would have hated to go here (He would have hated to attend a human school in general).

“Why is it so long? Do they not know how to use stairs?” Minseok’s thumb is absentmindedly rubbing circles into the back of Sehun’s hand as he looks at the school disdainfully.

Having absolutely no idea, but feeling like he needs to answer, Kyungsoo replies, “Maybe they’re too young to know how to climb stairs?”

“Nope, that is incorrect,” Baekhyun says. “For the last time, humans develop quicker than you think.” He sounds strained.

Kyungsoo and Minseok share a look. They’re both human enough. Clearly the kids in the elementary school are early 30s.

Unwilling to hear Baekhyun expound on human culture (because Kyungsoo knows it, damn it), Kyungsoo leads them across the huge parking lot. There are easily recognizable thick paint lines to signal where cars can park, but there’s also a lot of chalk lines that all intersect with each other at various points. If Kyungsoo looks behind him he thinks he can see that all the lines stop at a curved line, but he’s too far away to tell if it’s actually curved or because of his perspective.

Before Kyungsoo can even attempt to connect all of his half thoughts together, Baekhyun laughs (a little hysterically, if Kyungsoo’s being honest) and points at a cartoonish cat(?) drawn in pink chalk. “I used to love sidewalk chalk when I was a kid. Looks like this kid got bored of the geometry lesson or whatever.”

To a certain extent, Kyungsoo will never understand human children, but he’s also never been super into drawing, so he doesn’t comment on it. Besides, they’re close enough to the school that Kyungsoo’s encountered with a more pressing problem: the doors. He does not have a key to the school, and since they’re supposed to be secretive about their mission, he can’t call anyone and ask them to open it for him.

With a gesture that totally doesn’t reveal his helplessness, Kyungsoo turns to Minseok and points at the door, “Can your magic do anything here? A door’s a kind of barrier.”

Minseok throws him a withering glance that seems to disdain Kyungsoo for thinking he couldn’t do something like unlock a door. Kyungsoo holds back a sigh. Magic Users are so prickly (especially those from the Warrior families, but if you value your head, you don’t say it).

There’s no action taken by Minseok that Kyungsoo can see. One moment the door is closed and, in the next, it swings open with a creak and a hiss. The hallway is pitch black, which shouldn’t be happening because Kyungsoo saw windows, big windows, and they didn’t have curtains. In fact, Kyungsoo’s rather positive that he was able to see through them to the hallways.

Something’s created the darkness in front of them, which means that someone is here in the school now. They’ll need to proceed with caution.

“Baekhyun, can you do a ball of light about the size of your palm?” Kyungsoo’s voice comes out as a whisper. No doubt whatever’s causing the darkness knows that they’re here, but the darkness is so oppressive that it feels like a bad idea to do anything but speak in the softest of voices.

“Why don’t you just light up the entire place? You're powerful enough for that.” Sehun speaks almost flippantly, but this is as close to a compliment as Sehun will ever give.

“No, no!” Kai and Kyungsoo whisper fiercely at the same time. Baekhyun’s more than capable of lighting up the entire school, but he has yet to separate light and heat when using his magic. Kyungsoo cannot handle a fire on top of their original mission.

“A small ball of light,” Kyungsoo repeats.

Baekhyun looks a little embarrassed and frustrated at the exchange probably because he knows what Kyungsoo and Kai were thinking. His control isn’t where it needs to be yet for a (Potential) Chosen One and he’s well aware of it. Kyungsoo holds a hand behind his back to tell the others to stay put, and pushes Baekhyun forward gently until the both of them are out of earshot of Minseok and Sehun, but not Kai (Kai used to boast when they first met how he could hear up to 6 kilometers away, so getting out of his earshot is a lost cause). This places them almost firmly in the darkness, which Kyungsoo thinks is better for this kind of interaction.

“You’ve got this Baekhyun. A small ball of light. Round and round and round and round,” Kyungsoo starts to chant, getting softer as Baekhyun takes up the chant. A pinprick of light appears very faintly in the darkness and grows. Baekhyun’s stopped chanting, but the growing ball of light is casting enough light for Kyungsoo to see that Baekhyun is still mouthing the words. The ball stops physically growing, but it continues to get brighter and brighter. Kyungsoo cheers mentally. Kyungsoo hadn’t taught the mechanics for separating output from size, Baekhyun did that on his own. He must be becoming more in tune with his magic.

“That’s really good. You can hold it here. That should be enough.” Kyungsoo tries to keep his voice level, but not as soft as his instinct wants. Baekhyun will definitely take it as pity. Only a little louder (because he is still very afraid of the thing that’s causing the darkness), he calls out, “Alright, we’re ready.”

The other three come up silently and even in Baekhyun’s light, as bright as it is, they’re barely visible. If Baekhyun’s own magic can’t penetrate the gloom, they have a lot more reason to worry. But Kyungsoo keeps his musings to himself (The managerial book Char gave him said it’s a bad idea to let your team know when you’re unsure. Gotta be confident).

“Let’s keep going. Whatever’s here isn’t going to stay long. Kai, stand right behind Baekhyun. He’ll be the first one it’ll go after.

“What?” Baekhyun squeaks (though when Baekhyun retells this story, he will not admit to the fact).

Kai claps his hands on both of Baekhyun’s shoulders and leers at him, “It’s not a problem though, right? You are the Chosen One.”

There’s a split second where Baekhyun freezes under Kai’s attention before grabbing Kyungsoo’s collar and whispering furiously, “Control your man.”

“I don’t think he classifies as a man,” Kyungsoo replies automatically. Chunsoo and him debate this question a lot, so that’s why it comes to mind first. Belatedly, he thinks he should have contested the ‘control’ part, since he couldn’t even control Kai even if he wanted to. But bringing it up now, when they’re in the middle of an artificial darkness investigating a supposed blood ritual, seems like not the best idea.

“I like to classify myself as a threat,” Kai offers up.

“In the codex, Kyungsoo classified you as an idiot,” Sehun adds in, very unfortunately. Kai could not look more offended if he tried. In Kyungsoo’s defense, he had a hard time dealing with his feelings for Kai in the beginning.

“First of all, it’s not the real codex. It’s my copy that I keep in my room, and second, Sehun stay the fuck out of my room!”

“Chihiro’s allowed in your room.”

“Chihiro’s a fucking guest! You’re just a nuisance.”

“We are in the middle of a mission.” Minseok says slowly and clearly just seconds before Sehun’s about to make some inane point about how he’s also a guest, which is not true. Sehun’s lived in the house for 70 years now. You can’t be a guest if you lived there that long. (It absolutely does not matter that Chihiro’s been there for 80).

Kyungsoo grinds his teeth and yanks himself sharply out of Baekhyun’s grasp. He shouldn’t have to have Minseok remind him of his job. It’s embarrassing.

“Minseok’s right. Come on.” He shoves Baekhyun forward a little harder than necessary.

They all proceed slowly forward. First Baekhyun, then Kai and Kyungsoo with Minseok and Sehun closely behind. They make a valiant effort to stay within the range of the light, but it’s futile. Baekhyun’s shining as much as possible (without blinding or burning them), but it still only penetrates about a meter before abruptly vanishing. Minseok and Sehun vanish almost completely from sight the moment they’re out of range. It takes very little time for them to decide to hold hands, and it works as they walk down the long hallway until they get to a foyer sort of area.

They slowly walk the perimeter before returning to the hall they came from. The foyer breaks off into three hallways and Kai can’t get an energy reading on anything. Likewise Minseok can’t send out a pulse. All too quickly it’s swallowed by the gloom. They’ll have to split up and go in blind.

Kai can go by himself. He just got his energy topped off, and he’s easily the most powerful of the five of them. Kyungsoo should go with Baekhyun because he’s his Keeper, but it’s most likely safer to send Baekhyun off with Minseok. Minseok will definitely make sure Baekhyun stays safe. That leaves him with Sehun, which is fine. Despite being loose with his ability, Yeonsoo’s right. Sehun is most definitely the most skilled User in the house.

“So Kai can take the middle hallway, Sehun and I can take the left hallway—”

“If you separate Sehun and I in anyway, I will be poised to run to him at the first sign of trouble leaving Baekhyun completely alone and defenseless,” Minseok says with absolutely no intonation.

Kyungsoo manages to stop himself before he clicks his tongue. This is why it’s annoying to have the lovers here because of this fucking behavior. He and Kai aren’t like this.

“Well, that’s a little dramatic, but okay. You and Sehun take the left hall, Baekhyun and I will take the right. I’ve got charms. If you find something, drop the charm on the ground, and it will alert the other two teams of your location. If you engage in combat, remember we are to capture, but not kill.” (Sehun scoffs at the look Kyungsoo gives him).

Kyungsoo hands everyone a small piece of different colored paper (Baekhyun included. Just in case). Once he’s sure everyone’s pocketed it, he lets his backpack slip off his shoulders and fumbles in it for the three flashlights he packed. They’re huge monstrosities that claimed to be as powerful as floodlights. Kyungsoo absolutely expects them to be useless in the magic created darkness. Most technology fails when magic’s involved, but it’s better than nothing (in a pinch, they'll be a decent club).

Baekhyun looks absolutely scandalized when he sees that there’s three. Kyungsoo holds up a placating hand. “It’s just in case.” He clicks one on and is surprised to find that the light shines for about a meter and then ceases just like Baekhyun’s light. That is very surprising. Technology fails with magic. Well, it fails with their magic, which is elemental in nature. Kyungsoo should keep that in mind. They might be dealing with a stronger magic than he thought. Most of their magic comes from the second gen patrons. If someone’s successfully found and petitioned a first gen patron, there’s no telling what abilities have been granted.

Kai takes one of the flashlights out of his hands and also turns it on, waving it around. He looks almost thoughtful. Most likely he’s coming to the same conclusion. The look he gives Kyungsoo shows he’s clearly uncomfortable with splitting up.

“A shadow user who’s had a boost of power from a first generation shadow patron, and now wants his next fix. He’s toying with us.”

The sentence hangs heavy in the air after Kai says it. It’s a common tale. There are multiple ways to increase your power, all of them having devastating consequences. The fact that someone's found and petitioned a first gen patron means that they’re about to face someone who thinks they have nothing to lose. Incredibly dangerous territory to be in. Splitting up sounds like a terrible idea now, but they’re not exactly free on time.

Kyungsoo experiences sheer panic when all of them finally turn to him for instruction. He’s the leader and they’ll follow his call. He grits his teeth. They were sent here to find the murderer. “We split up. Don’t be afraid to use the charm.”

They all look more than a little uneasy at the prospect, but they go along with regardless, if with infinite more care and slowness than Kyungsoo would ever expect from them. He keeps the flashlight in hand even though Baekhyun still has his light. It’s good to proceed with caution.

The hallway they walk down is perhaps the most significant piece of evidence they have to indicate the type of person they’re dealing with. Outside of every classroom door for about three feet in either direction are handprints. Handprints obviously made with cheap paint that washes off, some are blurred smears: a kid dragging their hand across the paper because they were too excited. Underneath all the handprints are badly written American names. Some letters are written backwards; some barely look like letters at all.

A kid is dead, murdered by some magic junkie.

Kyungsoo swallows heavily and moves a bit more doggedly. The light in Baekhyun’s hand becomes more directed, less bright left and right, but more in front and behind them. Baekhyun’s face is carefully schooled into a very tight neutral expression. The handprints are nothing but shadow fingers climbing up the wall now. It’s preferable.

“I can’t hear anything,” Baekhyun says when they’ve gotten to the end of the hallway and are about to turn back. It jolts Kyungsoo out of his head, and he realizes that Baekhyun’s exactly right and he’s extremely stupid for not noticing. It’s not just a matter of there being nothing to hear. This is an old school, and old places make all sorts of weird noises. It’s dead silent.

“Wait here. I’m just going to step out of the light for a second. Don’t move.” Kyungsoo’s already halfway outside of the light by the time he finishes speaks, leaving Baekhyun no time to protest if he wants to.

The blackness is immediate in a very terrifying way that has ice running through Kyungsoo’s veins. He forces it down and walks a few more steps. Once he thinks he’s sufficiently far away, he turns 180 degrees and speaks.

“Baekhyun, can you hear me?”

No answer. Kyungsoo isn’t surprised. The words had barely left his mouth before they faded to nothingness. He’s not even sure he heard himself. Stupidly, his first thought is Minseok wouldn’t have been able to hear if Sehun was in danger, so he and Sehun could have been partners. He clicks his tongue and is more disappointed than he has any right to be that he can’t hear it. He steps back into the light and closes his eyes. After being completely in the dark, the sudden light, dim as it is, is too much for his eyes.

“Kyungsoo, are you okay? Were you attacked?” Baekhyun’s voice sounds loud and very annoying.

Kyungsoo holds up a hand, “It’s fine. The light’s just bright after being in the dark.”

“Why did you do it?”

“To test something. You’re right about the sound. It’s more than just dark out there. It’s void. Sound doesn’t travel. I think the only reason we can talk and hear anything is that your magic is interfering with the shadow magic.”

“Can it do that?

“It’s doing it.” Silently to himself, Kyungsoo adds _but it shouldn’t_. Elemental magic shouldn’t act like this. It’s very instinctive and hereditary magic, given to the people by the second gen patrons millennia ago. But there are rules. The magic is heavily studied, and Kyungsoo’s pretty sure shadow magic can’t be this oppressive, heavy murk, and that the flashlights shouldn’t be working. But it is and they are, and he doesn’t know why. It has to be elemental to some degree, though. If it wasn’t Kai and Minseok would have commented on it. Surely a first gen patron can’t do this, right?

“Do we keep moving?” Baekhyun asks.

Do they keep moving? They are completely blind in every way possible; easy pickings if the junkie so desires. It’s going to be near impossible to get anything done if it’s like this. They need to get rid of the dark, and the best way to get it done is to get Baekhyun to burn it away, but Kyungsoo hadn’t been joking. Baekhyun hasn’t learned to separate heat and light in his magic.

But they need to see.

“We’re going to do a quick lesson.”

“Right now, here? In the middle of a fucking death mission?” Baekhyun sounds more than slightly pitched.

“It’s not a death mission,” Kyungsoo barks a bit too sharply. He can’t let Baekhyun get too far down that line of thought. It’s not like he’s not happy about it either.

“Listen, the only way we’re going to get anything done here is if we get rid of the void. You’re going to have to burn it away.”

“Burn it away? I think you mean burn it down. Do you remember the fucking warehouse? Even the stone melted. That’s not physically possible, but it happened.”

“We’ve talked about this. Nothing’s really out of the realm of possibility. We’ve been witness to that fact already. Got to take it as it comes. But think about it this way, theoretically, and I very much do mean theoretically, if you burned down the school it would solve the problem, because the thing in question is undoubtedly here.” Kyungsoo holds his arms out in an opening, welcoming way that’s supposed to signal confidence. He tries to smile confidently too, but he’s never been a super emotive person, so he’s even more confident that’s he coming off as deranged. Given that he’s suggesting it’s fine to burn the school down, it’s fitting.

“So it’s okay for me to burn the school down?” Baekhyun asks skeptically.

No. “Sure,” Kyungsoo replies because Baekhyun’s shoulders are less tense than they were a few seconds ago. “That is a last resort though. We are going to try and see if you can just burn it away. Take off your sling.”

Baekhyun lets his hand drop from the ball of light which hovers in place, and begins to untie the red piece of leather from around his waist. It’s simple as slings go. A small loop at one end that thickens before tapering off again. At its widest point is the cradle, burned black with silver filigree on the outside. Baekhyun puts his middle finger through the loop and grips the other end between his thumb and forefinger.

“I can’t maintain two balls of light so this one will go out if I start to swing.”

Kyungsoo shrugs. If all goes to plan, there will soon be plenty of light. “It’s fine. So you’ve talked to Chanyeol before, right?”

“Chanyeol’s my boyfriend.”

Kyungsoo is well aware of that. It’s exactly why Kyungsoo never lets Chanyeol come with them. Having one pair of sappy lovers is more than enough trouble even if Sehun and Minseok are more of an asset than a detriment.

“Right, so you’ve talked then. Anyway, so when Chanyeol summons his fire, he imagines a lick of flame in the center of his chest that expands outward like an explosion, and likewise you imagine a small ball of light going round and round getting brighter.”

“Yes, yes, I know how Chanyeol and I manifest our powers.”

Kyungsoo could do without the fucking attitude. “I think you’re more than a little influenced by Chanyeol’s manifestation. You burn a lot hotter than you did when we first met, and I think it’s because you’re imagining the expansion of light like an expansion of fire.”

The look on Baekhyun’s face says he disagrees, but he won’t voice the complaint. Kyungsoo is his Keeper and that title includes being his teacher despite having no active magic.

“Humor me, Baekhyun. I want you to try imagining the ball of light going round and round like you usually do, but I want you to imagine that the warmth can’t go beyond the boundary of your body. Your body should slowly fill with light until you’re brimming with it. Until everything about you is just pure light.”

In truth, this shouldn’t be too different from what Baekhyun already does. Kyungsoo’s not expecting the light to be completely without heat, he just wants to see if he can temper it enough so that there’s no fire. Baekhyun looks a little unsure of himself, which isn’t too surprising. It had taken him months to even produce a stable ball of light.

“Please try.” Kyungsoo wants to say more, expound on why this is so important that Baekhyun do it, but he can’t. Baekhyun is absolutely terrible under pressure. It is the absolute worst trait a Chosen One can have, and here it appears in his (Potential) Chosen One.

Baekhyun grits his teeth and nods determinedly. “Okay.” He swings his sling slowly in a couple of practice circles before swinging it with more intent, winding up to release. In the seconds before the light goes out, Kyungsoo sees Baekhyun closing his eyes and whisper chanting, “round and round and round and round.”

Icy panic sets in again as he loses all of his senses, but then Baekhyun’s light starts to grow. It’s a pinprick at first going around in a smooth circle. It’s not as fast as Baekhyun usually winds it, so Kyungsoo thinks Baekhyun’s taking his advice quite seriously. It’s the size of a ping pong ball. Baekhyun’s chanting a little louder. Kyungsoo still doesn’t feel any heat. He feels his heart soar. Baekhyun’s doing so great!

The light’s the size of a golf ball now, barely bigger than before, but Kyungsoo knows from experience that Baekhyun won’t let it get any bigger. He’s got to be close to throwing. There’s heat, but nothing that will blister and burn Kyungsoo, something Kyungsoo purposely didn’t mention to Baekhyun. He’s got a small bracelet that provides a small measure of protection against magic, but it can easily be overloaded. Baekhyun’s got more than enough power to overload it.

But so far, the heat is manageable. He’s not even sweating.

Baekhyun starts chanting louder and louder as he gets ready to throw, “Round and round and round and ROUND!” On the last ‘round’ Baekhyun releases the end of the sling between his forefinger and thumb. The ball of light whizzes down the hall with audible sound before abruptly dying out and Kyungsoo only barely remembers to cover his eyes before the light explodes.

Through his eyelids and hands, he can perceive light. And then he smells burning hair. Behind that comes pain, but it’s manageable. Since there was the possibility of him coming out of this dead, he’s fine with the minor burns and singed hair. He is unreasonably glad, though, that his hands cover his eyebrows.

Kyungsoo can’t have stood with his eyes covered for more than minute before Baekhyun, awe evident in his voice, says, “It worked.”

Kyungsoo drop his hands and opens his eyes slowly. It’s not burned down. But barely. The hallway is now covered in what are undeniably scorch marks, and the butcher paper the handprints had been on has been burned to ash, but structurally speaking, it’s a big win.

A hand run through his hair doesn’t reveal any bald spots, so that helps him feel better about the situation. And being able to see again. Both of them are silent as they take in the very normal setting that had been hidden from them by the void.

Finally, Baekhyun shrugs and says, “It’s not burned down.”

Kyungsoo nods, “It is indeed not burned down.”

And then everything gets kicked into high gear. A blue line of fire leaving a blue line of light behind it, rushes toward them. It flashes brilliantly before dissipating leaving only the blue line. Kai’s set off his paper charm.

“Come on, Kai’s found them.” Kyungsoo takes off at a run down the hallway. He’s relieved to hear Baekhyun running behind him.

They run into Minseok and Sehun back in the foyer. There are soot marks and minor burns on their faces. Minseok is missing a chunk of his hair at the front, and Sehun’s cap is badly scorched. Kyungsoo manages to not laugh at the outline of a hand on Sehun’s torso from where Minseok undoubtedly tried to protect him. But maybe he should since the two of them are holding hands. They really need to read the room.

Guilt immediately flashes on Baekhyun’s face and he tries to stop and apologize, but Minseok just pushes him to keep running again.

“You’re lucky I understand that there was absolutely no way to let us know you were going to do that. It’s fine. I got a barrier up before we were badly hurt.”

“Sorry,” Baekhyun says anyway because everyone is well aware how much Minseok likes his hair. Kyungsoo sees Sehun send a gust of wind towards Baekhyun that makes him stumble before running again. Sehun’s never been as forgiving as Minseok.

They don’t have to run far down the middle hallway, Kai must have been on his way back when Baekhyun burned the void away. He has scorch marks on him, but there’s no burns under them. He has 3 tails now instead of just one, and his hair is thicker and taking on a reddish tint. He’s burned up energy healing himself. It’s a wonder he spent time to do it given how intently he’s staring at the thing in front of him.

Because that what it is, it’s a thing. Even Chunsoo wouldn’t disagree. It’s vague. A blurring outline of a human. It’s like someone has broadly drawn the human shape, but shortened extensively and given it a candle flame for hair. It has no expression on its face, nothing to indicate what it’s thinking. It’s got a gerbil carcass in its hand, half chewed.

“It’s a child,” Sehun says, surprise coloring his voice.

“No, it’s not. It’s not even human,” Minseok argues.

“It is definitely not human. Its energy signature is wrong, but it’s not recognizable to me in anyway,” Kai says viciously. He gnashes his overly sharp teeth at the thing. Still no reaction.

“Yeah, it is,” Baekhyun argues too loudly. “It’s like one of the drawing puppet things, you know, that you can move to better draw a human. Except in a miniature human size. Like a Gnome! Are gnomes real?”

While Baekhyun talks, in Kyungsoo’s mind eye flashes a faded drawing of a fully-grown man encapsulated in a sperm. Oh no.

“It’s a homunculus,” he breathes out. Everyone goes incredibly still. The flame-like hair wavers in a non-existent wind.

“This is the work of an alchemist?” Sehun asks, disbelieving. His hands are raised in the middle of sending a blast of wind, but he drops them and hides both behind his back as he worries his bottom lip.

“It doesn’t look like a homunculus though. It looks like a badly formed golem.” Minseok doesn’t sound nearly as concerned as the rest of them feel, which means he’s not convinced yet. Still, he positions himself slightly closer to Sehun, distance effectively calculated for throwing himself dramatically in front of Sehun should he need to.

“Golems are protectors and only ever protectors. They would never kill a child. This is a homunculus.” The information is coming back to Kyungsoo slowly, but the pieces finally slot into place. “There’s a two-step process to making a homunculus. We’ve somehow caught one in between stages. The second stage involves the homunculus ingesting a certain mixture of human blood and I’m guessing animal blood.” This is really the worst thing they could have discovered.

Since the homunculus isn’t moving or giving any indication that it’s going to attack (Though Kyungsoo has no idea what that would look like on this fucking automaton), they relax enough to debate it. None of them can relax enough to stop watching it though. It’s unnatural with its blank everything. Blood drips from the gerbil.

“What about the kid though? All of its blood drawn out through a syringe. This thing just fucking ate the rat.” In case any of them were worried, Baekhyun has recovered all of his bluster.

“Alchemy has many uses for human blood. There’s a good chance that the alchemist was collecting for future use as well as feeding the homunculus. As of right now, the homunculus is at its least dangerous. It’s consumed enough energy to take on this form, but for it to attack us would make it expend too much energy. I imagine that’s why it’s after children. The Council isn’t allowed to deal with Learnéd Magic. There’s no ruling for us to follow. Minseok, do you mind?” Kyungsoo just feels very tired. His problems have only just begun.

Minseok nods and raises a hand. An electric purple barrier appears around the homunculus. It’s stronger than it needs to be for a half-there energy being, but Minseok delights in being vicious. The barrier shrinks ever so slowly, but the homunculus shows no sign of stress. Sehun makes a noise in the back of throat and Minseok speeds up the shrinking of the barrier.

There’s nothing dramatic about the demise of the homunculus. Minseok’s barrier just absorbs it into itself until it’s gone, and that’s it. That’s the end of the mission they’ve been given.

Now a new one begins.


	3. Chapter 3

The oldest magic in the world is natural magic. It was granted millennia ago by the second gen patrons in return for worship. The magic given is woven into the blood and passed down through the generations. It has limitations and answers to very set rules. Most magic adapts to the nature of its user lending to different variations of the same magic. No one can learn it. They must be born with it.

Learnéd Magic is much more recent by comparison. It answers to no one, and as such has no limitations. Like with Natural Magic, there is a Council that Learnéd Users must answer to, but because the discipline evolves so rapidly, the rules are usually unrefined and not as effective as they should be.

Kyungsoo’s not against Learnéd Magic. He understands that all magic has set rules and caveats it follows. Understands that Natural Magic has a pretty firm basis in science. It’s why he made Baekhyun’s magic manifestation be based on a light particle going round and round to mimic a wave. He understands that they’re not so different, but Natural Magic Users have limits and they respect those limits. Learnéd Magic Users don’t.

“Killing people for blood magic can’t be legal though. No matter what reason they come up with. It’s immoral and unethical. Don’t they usually pride themselves on being scholars? Not that scholars usually have ethics.” Kyungsoo mutters to himself as he flips through his third book on the history of Learnéd Magic. Kai is sitting across from him reading about Alchemists. He looks up when Kyungsoo’s finished mumbling to himself.

“Nonconsensual Blood magic is banned.” Kai says, patting a thick, dusty tome next to him. “Most alchemy uses a little bit of blood, but anything that results in the death of a person is banned no matter the reason. It was banned after the first instance of it. An alchemist, who wasn’t named, which makes me think it was someone high up in their hierarchy, killed his wife and used her blood to try and create a panacea. It’s actually the quickest I’ve seen their council work in creating a law.”

“Surely there wasn’t a lot of dead wives at the time that someone couldn’t figure out who it was by process of elimination.”

Kai shakes his head. “This was in the 400s BC. A lot of deaths were because of the ‘gods’. And I’ll be honest, they’re rather blasé about death. Well, no I shouldn’t say that. They’re very clear that they regard the soul and body as different things. The soul is free after death, so the body doesn’t matter.”

“What happens to the soul after death?”

A crease appears between Kai’s eyebrows. “That’s what I’m trying to look for now. They’re oddly quiet about it. Every once in a while, they use the phrase ‘soul retrieval’, but they don’t say what it means. I don’t know if they’re talking about the universe retrieving the soul from the body or if they themselves have a way of retrieving the soul. This is a book on western alchemy, so I don’t think it’s referencing reincarnation.”

Kyungsoo hmms. “Do you think retrieving the soul could be a blood ritual?”

“No, they are very clear about that. They don’t think that the soul is contained in dead blood. The homunculus killed the kid. It wasn’t about soul retrieval, if that indeed is what it is.”

Kyungsoo clicks his tongue and leans back in his chair, stretching his arms upwards. He groans loudly when he hears his spine pop. They’ve been sitting here for hours trying to find something in their library that will give them access into why the alchemist created their homunculus.

Kyungsoo had looked up homunculi as soon as they had gotten back to confirm something. Homunculi only need set amounts of blood, and the history of homunculi had clearly stated that the death of humans was not needed for their creation. Which means he was right. The alchemist was using the homunculus to collect more blood for further magic. But he can’t find what kind of magic would require so much blood. Because that’s why he would drain a kid, right? If he needed a lot of blood?

Kyungsoo’s been through every spell book they have in their library, which is admittedly not many; it’s not their magic. As Keepers and Sentries, they’re required to know all types of Natural Magic broadly to better serve those who visit the House. There’s hardly time to study other magic. It’s pure luck that Kyungsoo had even seen the picture of the homunculus. It’s times like these that he wished he had swallowed the _yeowoo guseul._

“It’d be easiest if we could just ask the alchemist in question,” Kyungsoo says rubbing his hands roughly across his face and through his hair. His eyes feel gritty.

“Let’s do it then."

“Do what? Find the alchemist?” Kyungsoo can’t have heard right. Kai wants them to go after the alchemist? Without even an iota of a plan? Kyungsoo gets that you have to go with the flow, but you shouldn’t just throw yourself in the river.

“Yeah, like I said the homunculus had a weird energy signature, but it’s distinctive and strong. I can track it through any of the realms.”

The Council had reported the alchemist to the Learnéd Council. In theory, that means Kyungsoo and company have done their job. They’re done. Except none of them feel like they’re done. A kid was murdered and the murderer not caught. In theory, they might get in trouble with the Council if they pursue any course of action. But if they get them, The Council will laud them as heroes for proving that Natural Magic wins over Learnéd. And if Kai says he can track them, then why not?

“How will you be able to pick the right realm?”

Kai gestures to the book in front of him, “In the in-between states, the homunculus can’t travel too far from the alchemist. They definitely have to be in the same realm.”

Kyungsoo nods and stands up. “Let’s do it then. Let’s go find the alchemist.”

The Divide seems amused when Kyungsoo petitions it for the portal charm. Kyungsoo’s never done it before. In theory, a User petitions their patron for more power or for a type of magic usually not available to them. But a portal charm is only given to those born in The Divide and it doesn’t even rely on a User’s magic. It’s essentially an allowance from The Divide to travel between realms. It’s the only petition Kyungsoo would ever make, so he doesn’t know why he’s being treated with kid gloves.

“Look man, I’m going to be a Sentry one day, so I don’t know why you’re laughing. Only five people are allowed to petition this type of charm. You knew I’d be coming eventually.”

As always, the gleaming ball of weaving tree branches doesn’t talk, but it’s bobbing playfully. It’s not taking him seriously.

“Why’d you even let me in if you’re going to be like this?” Kyungsoo demands angrily.

The weaving branches move around, opening gaps that let the brilliance they hide shine through, until Kyungsoo is looking an exaggerated angry face.

“You’re mocking me! We agreed when I turned 300 that I’d be allowed to petition you. I’m 327 this year. It’s amazing I waited this long. Come on. You promised!” In the back of his brain, Kyungsoo does acknowledge how weird and blasphemous it is to argue with his patron. But it’s acting so ridiculous.

The Divide’s angry face disappears underneath writhing branches. It bobs impassively in front of him. Well that’s it then. The Divide will not accept his petition. He’ll have to find another way to get it. Maybe he can convince Char that there’s some gaps in the paperwork that require them to go back to the scene of the crime.

“Don’t know why I fucking bother,” Kyungsoo says in one last attempt to show The Divide how angry he is. This does earn him a deliberate bob, which he takes as agreement.

Kyungsoo turns around angrily and starts walking up the stairs. A tree branch wiggles and writhes its way out of the mass and shoots forward and around Kyungsoo. The tip of it solidifies into that same crystal-clear structure as the portal panes. It delicately taps the blue paper in Kyungsoo’s hand. Delicate black ink flows out of the tip to swirl and tangle on the paper. It’s the exact same design as the one Kyungsoo used two days ago.

He huffs and turns back, embarrassed. “Thank you.”

The Divide bobs itself in a double loop. Kyungsoo gives one more smile and hightails it out of the underground cavern under The Tree. Can’t believe he let The Divide get him angry. Can’t believe he got angry at his patron. He shakes his head and jumps over the last step up into the charged daylight of The Divide. He rests there for a moment, watches a long fat root slither its way on top of the passage to the underground chamber, and wishes Baekhyun had never showed him tentacle porn.

When he feels like he’s got a grip on himself, he walks around the tree to where Kai, Baekhyun, Minseok and Sehun are waiting for him. They’re surprisingly easy to convince, and by that, Kyungsoo means that it takes no convincing. In fact, most of them (Sehun) on seeing him, demand to go after the alchemist. Minseok has the decency to at least let him say his spiel, but even he agrees with no hesitancy. All of them feel like the mission still isn’t done. Kyungsoo holds up the paper charm.

“Got it. Before we go in, we have to lay some things out. Char and Yeonsoo don’t know we’re doing this. We’ve got to be back before dinner at 7. If we’re not back by 7, they’ll send a pulse out over The Divide and find out we’re not here. Given that 3 out of the 5 of us have been kidnapped before, I expect the reaction will be immediate. Second, we’re not going to kill the alchemist. We’ll turn him over to Junmyeon, who’s recently been appointed as a liaison between the two councils. We’re treating this like an extension of our old mission, and as such, we’ll follow all protocol.”

They all nod in various levels of reluctance. Minseok especially seems a little miffed that they’ll be dealing with Junmyeon, his older "brother". They’ve never gotten along with each other as long as Kyungsoo’s known Minseok. Kyungsoo’s met Junmyeon, so he thinks he gets it. At best, Kyungsoo can tolerate Junmyeon for about two hours. He can’t imagine living with him.

Kyungsoo places the charm on the ledge and watches expectantly as the adjacent tile changes to show a polished wood floor and a marble countertop bathed in natural light. Well, that’s nice. It must be a new vacant house in the neighborhood. Kyungsoo has a sinking suspicion that The Divide can specifically choose the landing site for a portal, and that The Divide chose this nice place for him, which sends a new wave of embarrassment rushing over him.

Unable to look at his team, he just holds a hand backwards and waits about ten seconds to give everyone enough time to grab on before touching his hand to the tile.

“I fucking knew there were good liminal spaces,” Baekhyun says looking around approvingly. His voice echoes eerily in the empty space. It’s bigger than Kyungsoo thought. They’re in a modern mansion. Everything’s monochromatic, all cold and unfeeling despite the big windows letting in natural light. It makes him uneasy. He’s not sure he would call it a good liminal space.

“I’ve got the scent!” Kai says excitedly, tail flipping behind him. After a second he cocks his head. “It’s strong too. I think we’re less than 100 meters away.”

Kyungsoo groans to himself. The Divide is never going to let him live his temper tantrum down. It was an omniscient being. Of course it would give him a portal that put him down right where he needed to go. And he called it “man”!

“Let’s go,” he manages to get out through clenched teeth. He ignores the concerned stare that Baekhyun gives him and the weird side-eye Sehun does to pretend he’s not concerned. Minseok just ignores him and Kai, who’s gotten used to Kyungsoo making weird noises under his breath, and knows better than to confront him about it.

If you told Kyungsoo that this was the same street with the same houses that they had portaled to last time he would have believed it. None of these houses look any different. Well, that’s not true. One’s got a bike thrown on the front lawn.

“To the left,” Kai says, and they all follow dutifully. Kai barely walks down two houses before stopping them. “It’s this one.”

All of them are more than a little disappointed at seeing The Alchemist’s home. It’s no different from the rest of the houses in the neighborhood. It’s red brick with a green aluminum roof, and two windows, curtains drawn, with planters on either side of the green door. In its defense, there is a large black cauldron sitting on the porch next to a rocking chair. Except Kyungsoo is somewhat vaguely aware that this culture has a day for celebrating witches and dark magic, so who knows if the cauldron is something The Alchemist actually uses.

“Do we knock?” Baekhyun asks. “If they’re in, what do we do? Just straight up capture them, ask them how they’re doing? What’s the precedent for this situation?”

“Wow, you never shut up, do you?”

“Fuck off, Sehun.”

“We don’t want to alert them straight away. We should try to get into their house first, and learn why. So we should knock and—” Do something, Kyungsoo thinks. How does one get into a murderer’s home to ask them why they did the thing that they did?

“Oh wait, I know how to get in the house if that’s what you want. We’ll just say we’re new to the neighborhood and that we wanted to get to know our new neighbors,” Baekhyun says with a shrug like it’s a good plan, all of his former anxiety gone. Kyungsoo doesn’t know why. It’s not a good plan. It’s not a believable plan.

“That’s not going to work,” Minseok says with a look of skepticism that mirrors Kyungsoo’s own.

“Yeah, it is. It’s the polite thing to do when you move into a new place. You greet your new neighbors. Of course, it’d be better if we had like some cake or cookies to give them.” This last part Baekhyun mutters to himself. He looks at Kyungsoo’s backpack like Kyungsoo’s got some cake secreted away. You don’t travel with food. It rots when it goes through the portal.

“But we’re the new neighbors. Why are we bringing food? Shouldn’t they be giving us food?” Minseok asks doubtfully.

“Some of them do, but you want to give them a good first impression. They think better of neighbors who take initiative.” Baekhyun’s gesturing wildly and his smile is only on the left side of his mouth. It’s a sure sign he’s not quite sure of what he’s saying.

“I’d think better of them too if they took the initiative. Since they’ve been here longer, they should make the first gesture,” Sehun says defensively. Kai, as always when matters of human culture are brought up, stays out of it. He’s holding his tail up behind him so that it’s visible over his shoulder. They’re going to have to do something about that. Nothing like a real live kumiho to alert The Alchemist that they aren’t new human neighbors.

Baekhyun holds up both hands to stop the rest of the protest. “Look I’m not going to explain neighborhood politics to you. They are very real, and the Homeowner’s Association is a very real pain in the ass. The Alchemist will not be surprised that the new neighbors are being friendly. At worst, they’ll be annoyed, but they won’t think it’s weird especially since the empty house is only two down.”

Kyungsoo’s not sure he’d answer the door to anyone, much less five scruffy looking kids who don’t really look like new neighbors, but, at this point, he's willing to admit that he doesn't get human culture. So he agrees with Baekhyun and the rest follow his example.

Baekhyun claps excitedly. Kyungsoo hardly ever agrees to his plans. “Fantastic. You guys should let me lead. I know the type of stuff you say in this situation.” His chest is puffed out. He is the undisputed expert in this situation.

“We’ve got to deal with Kai first. I think my jacket should cover his tail, and Sehun’s cap should cover his ears.” Kyungsoo shrugs off his black jacket and hands it to Kai, who just holds it in one hand.

“I’m not wearing the jacket.” Kai’s tail flips sharply behind him. “I’ll just take on a full human form.”

Kyungsoo’s shaking his head before Kai’s even done. “No way, man. The energy expenditure of transforming in such a technological world is too much, you know that, so you’re going to have to suck it up and wear the jacket.”

Kai scowls but he grudgingly puts the jacket on. He places Sehun’s cap delicately on his head. Sehun comes up from behind and pushes the cap down further on Kai’s head. Kai growls deep in his throat and flashes his canines.

Sehun’s not cowed in the slightest. “It looks stupid if you just balance it on your head. You’ve got to pretend to look human.”

“What do you know about being human?”

“Hey, I watch this realm’s TV. I know the fashions.” Sehun’s wearing black joggers and a white long sleeve t-shirt with a single navy-blue band around the left bicep.

“You watch anime,” Kai growls.

“Eyes off my boyfriend,” Minseok says to Kyungsoo and Baekhyun. Neither of them is quite convinced that Sehun really knows fashion.

“That’s unreasonable and you know it,” Kyungsoo says at the same time as Baekhyun says, “Why would I want to look at your ugly ass boyfriend?”

“I’m all yours, baby,” Sehun croons and wraps himself around Minseok like an octopus.

“Whoa man, we agreed after the banshee incident that there was no PDA allowed when we’re on a mission.”

“I didn’t agree to that.”

“We voted and won 3-2, so shut up,” Kai retorts. The jacket is straining against his shoulders, and the cap is starting to tilt because he can’t keep his left ear flat against his head. “We’re wasting time. Let’s go. Baekhyun, knock on the door.”

“Finally,” Baekhyun gripes, and treks up to the door with a determined stride.

“I think you look hot, babe,” Kyungsoo says after Sehun and Minseok are out of earshot.

“You only call me babe when you think I look stupid,” Kai growls back petulantly.

“Babe, I would never.”

Kyungsoo has to run ahead to avoid Kai’s playful swipe. They barely manage to make it up the steps to the porch before the door opens to reveal a very bland middle-aged man.

Everything about the man is soft, no sharp lines. Flat brown eyes stare at them through rimless glasses (“Oh, I was expecting him to have a bad dye job,” Sehun says very softly to Minseok. This earns him a quick jab to the stomach). This man is very sad in every way that counts. He doesn’t seem very surprised to see them even though they haven’t announced their intentions and they don’t look like new neighbors. Baekhyun’s way too cheerful in comparison.

“Good afternoon, sir. We’re the Kims. I’m Baekhyun, and this is Sehun, Minseok, Kyungsoo, and, uh, Jongin, but we call him Kai. We just moved into the house two doors down. We thought we would come say hello.”

That’s it. That’s all Baekhyun’s going to say? Fuck that. That’s not going to get them inside the fucking house. Why did Baekhyun think this was going to work?

“Oh,” the man says after a silence that’s just a bit too long, “well it’s very nice to meet you. I’m John Turner. Won’t you please come in for some coffee or tea? I’ve never met anyone from Korea before.” He turns around without waiting for them and heads back inside.

“What’s Korea?” Minseok asks after the man is sufficiently out of earshot.

“Minseok’s a Korean name.” Baekhyun says in lieu of an answer.

“I didn’t have a name in the Unknown. I chose the name off a TV show. I know nothing about this realm.” Minseok whispers back because they’re all walking into the house now, which looks more like a grandmother's wet dream than someone’s place of residence.

“Oh, it’s creepy,” Baekhyun says a bit too loudly for how close they are to The Alchemist. It earns him a slap to the head and an elbow to the gut.

“Your house is very cozy, Mr. Turner,” Minseok says with complete sincerity. Kyungsoo sees him angle his hand down at the floor. He looks up at Kyungsoo after a few seconds and shakes his head. No signature.

“Thank you, my wife decorated it.” The Alchemist replies tonelessly. He’s using the plastic packet the instant coffee came in as a stirrer. The sink is overflowing with dirty dishes. There’s a fine layer of dust and mold on them. Some things click in place for Kyungsoo, but he has to be certain.

“Oh, you have a wife? Will we be able to meet her today?” Kyungsoo knows his phrasing’s awkward and probably not at all how humans talk to near strangers.

Baekhyun shoots him a sharp glance, but Kyungsoo’s too focused on The Alchemist, who blinks slowly as if he’s considering the question. The packet he’s using as stirrer crinkles in his grip.

“Ah, my wife,” he clears his throat, “my wife is dead. It’s just me.”

It doesn’t take much to feign embarrassment. Kyungsoo hates to cause pain on purpose. He rubs a hand over the side of his neck. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

The Alchemist smiles, but it’s a conditioned response. “It’s alright. You couldn’t possibly have known. It’s alright. Why don’t you help me move the mugs to the living room and you can tell me what made you move here?”

Minseok moves forward first and the rest of them move after him. Kyungsoo holds Kai back before they get to the living room. “Are you getting anything?”

“The energy signature definitely ends here, but the entire energy of the house is distorted. I think he’s cast something over the house.”

Kyungsoo clicks his tongue. That’s not great, but it’s not the worst either. They’re already in the thick of it, so they can only move forward from here.

The couches in the living room have plastic on them. Baekhyun’s not acting weird about it even though it squeaks horrendously when he sits down, so Kyungsoo’s not going to be weird about it. The plastic doesn’t feel comfortable and he’s definitely bracing himself with his legs way more than he should be sitting on a couch.

“So, what brings you to Texas?” The Alchemist asks after they’ve all sat down with their coffee.

They all look at Baekhyun, who almost immediately wilts under the pressure. A blush creeps up his neck.

“We’re international students. Our school recently rented the house for all of the international students to share over the year. We’re the first batch. More will come later,” Minseok says smoothly, masterfully getting the attention off of Baekhyun. It takes a lot of effort for Kyungsoo not to stare at Minseok. Kyungsoo knows that Minseok and Sehun watch a lot of TV (mostly soap operas and martial art anime), but what kind of TV are they watching that’s prepared them for this specific situation?

The first emotion The Alchemist shows flickers briefly over his face: confusion. “Oh, but I thought you were all Kims?”

“Common last name in South Korea,” Baekhyun replies. He’s still obviously a little jittery, but he’s gaining confidence from Minseok.

The confusion smooths back into placidity. “Oh, yes. What are you all studying?”

Kyungsoo doesn’t even have time to begin thinking about what a human would study because Baekhyun’s stepping on his foot. He glares at Baekhyun, but Baekhyun’s not even acknowledging him, just staring very intensely in the direction of The Alchemist. Kyungsoo follows his line of sight, and sees a picture frame behind The Alchemist.

It’s a family photo of The Alchemist. He’s smiling happily at a woman, presumably his wife, and his wife is smiling down at a little boy who’s smiling sunnily back. His son. The Alchemist hasn’t mentioned his son, even though there were more than enough openings. Kyungsoo can’t help but notice that the son is about the same age as the kid who was murdered.

Kyungsoo chances a glance at Minseok to see if he’s getting this. Minseok’s listening to the conversation intently, but his hand is face upward and his ring finger is twitching. The Alchemist is talking to Kai about something. (“You have very sharp teeth, Kai. Are you perhaps a bloodsucker?” The Alchemist asks in a weak attempt at humor. “What? I eat flesh. Blood actually creeps me out,” Kai replies more than a little confused. “What?” “What?” “Kai’s just joking, Mr. Turner.” Baekhyun says on the verge of hysterical laughter).

Kyungsoo feels breathless until Minseok closes his fist and taps the couch twice with his index and middle fingers. Nothing. The kid’s not here, and Kai would have told him if he scented a recent second energy signature especially since The Alchemist said that he lives alone in the house.

There’s a muted sort of horror that builds in Kyungsoo as he realizes that The Alchemist was telling the truth. It is just him in this house. Why did he not mention his son? What’s going on here?

“Kyungsoo,” The Alchemist says, jerking Kyungsoo out of his musings right when Kyungsoo’s about to put the pieces together. “I really like that tattoo. Is there any meaning to it?”

Kyungsoo blinks owlishly down at his tattoo. In all honesty, he forgets that he has it. It’s four of the vine-like tree branches of The Divide spiraling up his arm until they all converge over his pulse point and sprout a leaf that takes up the majority of his palm. It’s not a tattoo in the traditional sense. Like all children of The Divide, it shows up around their 100th year, and that’s all that it really means: that this is a child born in The Divide. One who does The Divide’s will, even though The Divide hasn’t given any of them a directive since Kyungsoo was alive. He’s pretty sure The Divide only ever spoke to the first Sentry.

“Oh, it’s a family tattoo. My family were… gardeners for the royal family in Korea long ago.” That sounds prestigious enough to get a tattoo over, doesn’t it? The Alchemist is nodding like he’s given a good answer even though Baekhyun’s got his mouth screwed over to one side like it doesn’t make sense. It’s fine. The Alchemist is American. What does he know about Korea?

There’s a bit more life in The Alchemist’s face now. “That’s really interesting because, you see, I thought that the tattoo meant that you were a child of The Divide, a protector of all the realms and the creatures within them.”

 _Ah,_ Kyungsoo thinks rather blandly, _protector of the realms sounds so glamorous_. Baekhyun’s mouth is dropped open in complete shock while Sehun’s clenching his jaw, his hair whipping around in a self-created wind. Minseok’s got one hand on Sehun’s elbow to stop him from doing too much in such a small space. Kai’s face is neutral, but his ears have come to attention at the revelation, which knocks the cap off, displaying them.

Kyungsoo’s lost his ability to feel too surprised at anything given the bizarre nature of his life. Given that The Divide library has books on Learnéd Magic, it’s not odd that the Learnéd Users have books on Natural Magic Users. The Divide is well documented.

The Alchemist has a gleam in his eye likes he’s been particularly clever. While it’s not unclever (Kyungsoo understands that they’re in The Alchemist’s home and that they’re at a disadvantage because of it), it’s not terribly efficient. This guy made them coffee and made them think up lies (Baekhyun told The Alchemist that Kyungsoo’s majoring in Classics. That doesn’t even make sense. Classic what?) instead of just saying straight out ‘I know who you are, and now I will kill you’ or something along those lines.

“Yeah. I’m a Keeper of The Divide. My friend Kai here is a kumiho, a nine-tailed fox demon, and the rest of them are Natural Magic Users, though I think it’s better if you don’t know what kind of magic. We must keep some surprises after all. I expect you know why we’re here.” Kyungsoo feels very disconnected from himself while he gives this speech. It’s dispassionate, but smooth, controlled. He knows he commands better respect when he’s like this. He comes off more as a leader.

“You killed my homunculus.” The Alchemist says with the same amount of dispassion.

“It wasn’t alive, so I didn’t kill it. I destroyed it. You killed a rabbit, a gerbil, and a child. You killed someone else’s child even though you know the pain of losing one. What happened to your son, Mr. Turner?”

To his credit, The Alchemist also doesn’t seem phased by Kyungsoo’s revelations. “Cancer, a long, slow death. 3 years ago now. My wife and I grew apart. Her death wasn’t my fault. Hit by a car one state over. That was about a month ago.” His speech is dispassionate, but his hands fidget uselessly in his lap. He adjusts his glasses.

“I’m sorry,” Kyungsoo says, and he truly is. It’s terrible that someone should suffer so much grief, but that doesn’t mean another should die because of it. “But that doesn’t allow you to kill someone else’s child.” Kyungsoo in fact doesn’t see the correlation between the two events at all, but it’s better to play it coy like he still has cards to play.

“Kyungsoo’s right, Mr. Turner. You’ve killed another child, causing someone else pain. In the off chance that you are able to bring back your child. Will you be able to live with yourself knowing the price you had to pay to get him back?” Kai asks, head tilted. It’s not the look of confusion that The Alchemist will think it is. Kai’s listening for something while he talks.

The final pieces click into place when Kai speaks. Human Transmutation. That’s why he needed to take all the blood of the kid. A symbol of life. But what equals a life? The books on Alchemy in the library had brought the question up before very firmly stating that human transmutation was banned in all circumstances.

“We reported the occurrence to your council. No doubt they figured it out quicker than us, but you’re still here,” Kyungsoo says more to himself than The Alchemist.

The Alchemist doesn’t reply just gives him an enigmatic smile.

Surprising, to perhaps all of them, is that Baekhyun speaks. “You’re researching human transmutation for The Council. They’re not going to stop you. They want you to succeed.” He doesn’t sound shocked. He’s rather calm about the entire ordeal. “What does it matter what’s sacrificed when you have the potential to reanimate whomever you want? Every great alchemist’s soul is retrieved at their death. The moment you’ve perfected human transmutation, you can revive all of them.”

The Alchemist smiles widely. “Which of your parents is an alchemist?”

“My mother,” Baekhyun replies evenly. He blinks innocuously. “She told me about The Blood Alchemist. You do all of The Council’s dirty work.”

The Alchemist seems very pleased that he’s known. He’s stopped paying attention to the rest of them, which is good because Kyungsoo feels absolutely thrown and he’s sure his face shows it. Baekhyun was assigned to Kyungsoo because he met the criteria used for determining Potential Chosens. They would have mentioned that Baekhyun’s mother is an alchemist if they knew. The Council wouldn’t have chosen him if they’d known. And Kyungsoo never asked about his family because most of the beings that moved to the house were on bad terms with their family.

When Kyungsoo comes out of his thoughts, Baekhyun’s speaking again, “-think they care about you? You’re just a scapegoat. If we kill you, do you think we’ll be punished? No, they’ll take your research and label you a monster. ‘How dare a man kill a child for human transmutation. How can he be so careless with human life?’ That’s what they’ll say, and no one will defend you. You’ll go down as a murderer.”

There’s a vein pulsing prominently on The Alchemist’s forehead, but he offers nothing up.

“It’s rather suspicious that you lost your wife, Mr. Turner,” Minseok says softly. “The timing is too coincidental. I think The Council isn’t being honest with you.”

The Alchemist’s hands curl into fists. “Perhaps the timing is suspicious, but I’ve retrieved both their souls, so once I master human transmutation, I will be able to bring them back.”

“But you’ve already failed,” Baekhyun says. “Human blood is unusable after 2 days in any ritual. The kid was killed five days ago.”

Dimly, Kyungsoo notes that Kai’s tail is whipping around wildly and that his jaw’s elongated to allow for the extra teeth that are pushing their way through his gums.

“Something’s happening at the school,” Kai says suddenly. His ears are lowered back and his canines are bared.

“The chalk lines in the parking lot were a transmutation circle!” Baekhyun yells, eyes wide with sudden revelation.

“Sehun!” Minseok says quickly.

Sehun needs no further instruction. He blasts the Alchemist off of his feet and into the wall. The Alchemist falls to the floor in a crumpled heap.

“We need to go now.” Kyungsoo says sharply. He drops a piece of green paper. “Junmyeon will deal with him.”


	4. Chapter 4

The Alchemist lives four streets over from the school. Kai doesn’t even need to lead them. They just follow the tremors. The closer the get, the more the ground moves beneath them. Sehun, eventually, is constantly buffeting their feet with blasts of air to help them keep their balance as they run towards the school.

As they run, more and more people come out of their houses to see what’s going out. There is one good thing about the tremors. All of the people running out of their houses are too concerned with trying to figure out how there’s an earthquake in Texas to notice that one of the people running past is more fox than human at this point.

The school is shaking. It’s vibrating so much that the edges of it are blurred, but there seems to be no structural damage. The parking lot is full of cars because it’s the middle of a day during the school week. There’s a split second where they just watch the school tremble before kids and adults alike come flooding out of the doors. There’s no time to think of a better plan. They all run forward to try and get the evacuees out of the circle.

Baekhyun bodily holds Kyungsoo back from entering the circle. Sehun and Minseok rush forward, paying no attention to the fact that two of their party members have stopped. Kai twirls around and starts to run back, but stops when Kyungsoo holds up a hand. Baekhyun’s looking down at the circle and the look on his face can only be described as stricken. Kyungsoo waves Kai on. They’ll be there in a second.

“What’s the matter?”

“This isn’t what was chalked on the ground when we came here.” Baekhyun’s yelling to be heard over the screams of the humans. They don’t have time to be doing this type of back and forth.

“Explain everything right now.”

“When we first came here, this was a squared circle, which is the circle alchemists use for most transmutations even human transmutation. Now it’s a snake eating its tail. This is an ouroboros circle. The ouroboros circle is only used for the creation of the philosopher’s stone.”

“The philosopher’s stone has never been successfully created.” Kyungsoo knows this much. Every Natural Magic User knows the philosopher's stone. It’s an abomination against nature.

“It’s never been successfully created because alchemists function under the law of Equivalent Exchange. To create something so powerful, you’d need something extremely rare. Alchemists have always known that you’d need a human soul. But from attempts in the past, we know that one soul isn’t enough. To truly make a philosopher’s stone, you’d need a lot of souls.”

“This isn’t about bringing back The Alchemist’s son. All of the people in the circle are being sacrificed to create a philosopher’s stone,” Kyungsoo says, the horror of the situation hitting him all at once. This is about to be the site of a massacre. “The Alchemist didn’t tell us.”

“The Alchemist doesn’t know,” Baekhyun replies vehemently, “I told you. The Council is using him as a scape goat. This was all a setup!”

There’s a lot to unpack with Baekhyun’s conviction that The Learnéd Council is behind this, but it’s something that will have to wait until this is over. If they’re alive when this is over. They’ve never had such a high stakes mission. They can’t afford to fail. They can’t let this many people die.

“What do we do? There’s got to be some way to stop this from happening. We can’t let all these people die.” And that is the wrong thing to say.

Baekhyun immediately deflates and turns from alchemy expert into the (Potential) Chosen One. “I don’t know. I don’t know. This wasn’t supposed to be possible. It’s never happened before. The ritual should have stopped since The Alchemist was knocked out. I don’t know what’s going on.”

There’s not really any time for Baekhyun to be like this, but it can’t be helped. Baekhyun is legitimately the only one who can help get them out of this, but Kyungsoo can’t tell him that.

Kyungsoo places his forehead gently against Baekhyun’s and places his hands so that Baekhyun can’t see what’s happening around them.

“Round and round and round and round,” Kyungsoo chants softly over and over until Baekhyun joins him. Incrementally, Baekhyun relaxes. Finally, with a deep breath, Baekhyun rids himself of the last of his tension. The steely look returns to his eye.

“To avoid people trying to create the philosopher’s stone, certain details have always been excluded from any accounts pertaining to it. At the center of the circle will be the words ‘The All is One’ in Greek. If we can erase it, we’ve ruined the circle and the ritual can’t be completed.”

“Why can’t we just erase part of the circle right here? Surely that ruins it too.”

Baekhyun shakes his head. “No, no, no. The magic is unstable. If we erase the actual physical boundaries of the circle, we release it into the world. That’s too dangerous. Destroying the words is the only way to destroy the circle and keep the magic contained.”

Great! Great! Great! They have a plan. Kyungsoo grabs Baekhyun’s hand, “Let’s go then. We’ll leave the others to help the people. You and I will go erase the words.”

“There’s one more thing,” Baekhyun says, digging his heels into the ground to stop Kyungsoo from running off.

Kyungsoo holds back a groan. They’re running out of time. The tremors are stronger now, and he’s pretty sure he sees people lying on the ground. Whether they’re dead or unconscious, he doesn’t now, but they have to move.

“What?”

“John Turner is lying unconscious in his home, there’s no way he’s the one causing this. There’s another alchemist and they’re going to have to be in the school. We have to get them.”

Of course, they’ll get them. Like Kyungsoo’s going to let another murderer get away. He nods and pulls Baekhyun into a run after him.

Minseok is leading a chain of young kids out of the circle. Some of the calmer teachers see him and throw their own kids onto the chain before starting mini chains of their own to lead students to safety. Sehun’s chosen the riskier but highly effective strategy of just windblasting huge groups of people out of the circle.

Kai’s having a different issue from the rest of them. A lot of the younger children don’t quite realize what’s going on, and are more interested in the fact that Kai has two, almost three, tails. (“Are you Tails, mister?” “What? I have tails, but I’m not tails. I don’t even know what that means.” “Can you helicopter your tails to fly?” “Now you’re just making up words.” “Tails does it all the time to help Sonic.”) Then a fight breaks out among the children about Sonic and Tails, but they’re all easily corralled by Kai into moving outside of the circle.

The school is practically jumping from the force of the tremors at this point. At some point the transmutation has to take place, Kyungsoo can already see that some of the chalk lines are glowing and burning themselves into the ground. That’s going to be a bitch to explain when the time comes. Hopefully Junmyeon is up to the challenge. Kyungsoo’s already going to have a mountain of paperwork to deal with if they survive.

Out of nowhere, it occurs to Kyungsoo that if this was a Natural Magic User doing something this big, they’d have to be quite powerful. He can’t even imagine how much energy it would take. “Does it take a powerful Alchemist to do something like this?”

“No. Alchemy doesn’t use the person’s energy. It’s equivalent exchange. You factor in the energy that has to be used in the exchange beforehand. I’d say there’s more than enough for the exchange. Don’t relax though. They're probably skilled.”

Never once did it occur to Kyungsoo that he could relax, but Baekhyun’s reply is somewhat comforting even though it doesn’t answer his question (How does skill equate to power in this scenario?). Baekhyun’s strong, and Kyungsoo’s… something. They can take this guy.

They run into the foyer and are once again confronted with the three halls. Kyungsoo turns to Baekhyun for guidance.

“The words have to be in the exact center of the circle. It’s the hub of the Ouroboros. I don’t know where that is, though.”

Kyungsoo can take a guess. The entire school is in the circle. It stands to reason that the center of the circle is, if not exactly, close to the center of the school. Kyungsoo’s seen the blueprint of the school.

He points to the hall straight in front of them. “This way.”

Despite being able to run reasonably well up until now even with the tremors (and Sehun’s power), they’re now struggling to go more than a foot forward without falling onto the floor or into a wall. It’s got to be a sign that the exchange is ready to take place, but Kyungsoo has no way of knowing. Every time the tremors (which is now totally the wrong word to describe them as) get stronger, Kyungsoo thinks this is it.

“How much longer do we have?”

“I’d say at most 10 minutes. There’s very strong sense energy in the school that’s being used as part of the exchange. Because of its intangibility, it takes a bit longer to process.”

Kyungsoo nods. That makes sense. It’s exactly why the portal would never drop them in a school. There’s little to no sense energy in liminal places, making them less anchored to the realm they reside in. Portalling into a school would be like wadding through thick mud.

Baekhyun gets bodily thrown by a particularly violent tremor into a heavy metal door. It’s the exact heavy metal door that they need. Right above is a simple blue placard that reads GYM.

Kyungsoo clutches at the wall and slowly makes his way over to Baekhyun, who’s barely holding onto the door handle with one hand and clutching his head with the other.

“Are you okay?”

Baekhyun glares up at him like he’s the stupidest person in the world. “Do I look okay?”

In Kyungsoo’s defense, he didn’t see the trickle of blood until after Baekhyun had removed his hand, but still. “Okay, asshole. Let me rephrase then. Are you okay enough to help me take down the Alchemist? Or are you out for the count?”

Baekhyun uses his grip on the door handle to haul himself up, “Do I have a choice in the matter? What can you do on your own?”

And that stings a little, but Kyungsoo doesn’t let it show. There’s no time to hash this out. There’s not even time for this banter if he’s being honest. He shoulders Baekhyun out of the way (a little harder than necessary) and braces one hand against the wall to pull the door open.

“I know how to fight,” he finally manages to say back.

Baekhyun grapples his way in through the door. “Don’t lie. I know how your first meeting with Kai went.”

“He’s a millennia old fox demon. Of course my punches didn’t harm him. That’s his fault not mine.”

If Baekhyun has a retort, it’s lost in the bizarre sight of a woman sitting very calmly in front of something glowing. The upheaval that’s going on throughout the entire school is gone here. It’s too still, like someone has cast a spell on the gym. She probably did. Her legs are crossed under her, her plaid skirt arranged carefully over them. She looks like a librarian taking a union sanctioned break except for the very obvious alchemical symbols glowing in front of her.

Baekhyun sucks in a quick breath. “She’s drawn a squared circle around the words. It’s a technique that only a few Alchemists are taught in case of being misused. Be careful. She’s extremely skilled. She might not even need to use a circle for everything she casts.”

Like everything Baekhyun’s said in the past hour, the question _how do you know about this extremely secret thing_ passes through Kyunsoo’s mind, but it’s not the time. His worst fear about this has been realized. He’s dealing with someone extremely skilled in a magic he knows too little about.

Their footsteps sound too loud on the laminate floor. Kyungsoo’s working to keep himself from flinching every time he puts a foot down, but the woman doesn’t look at them. Her eyes are closed, face serene, and the words glow brighter.

They get very close, well within range of attacking, before she acknowledges them.

“Hello, Kyungsoo, Baekhyun.”

“Hello Vita,” Baekhyun responds gravely. It takes everything in Kyungsoo not to lash out at Baekhyun. Baekhyun knew who this was when they were walking over, and he didn’t think to give Kyungsoo any sort of fucking clue?!?

“You’re looking worse, but Natural Magic has that effect on people, doesn’t it? How barbaric to use your own body’s life force to power your magic.”

Baekhyun ducks his head slightly to hide his mouth behind Kyungsoo. “Oh my god, she’s going to monologue.”

“When we were in the academy, Baekhyun, you were so bright. You were so inventive. You were the first of us to cast without a circle, and then you found out you were a human flashlight. Just like that, everything about you corrupted, destroyed. Just like that, you dropped everything you were, everything you could be to go and learn some stupid limited type of Magic. And now, where are you? Hiding behind this ghost boy with no magic watching me about to go down in history as the greatest alchemist there ever was.” She smiles cruelly, wickedly.

She’s power-hungry to the extreme, and in some ways absolutely no different from their first assessment that the murder of the kid was done by a magic junkie. The most important thing connecting them is that they act like they have nothing to lose, and that really is the worst trait in someone intending to mass murder people.

“I had no purpose at the academy. I have purpose with natural magic. I’m the Chosen One and I’m going to help move the world in a better direction. Can’t you see that that’s better than the self-serving nature they taught us?”

Baekhyun, for nostalgia, empathy or some other damning emotion, has decided that he’s going to try to get Vita to understand, and Kyungsoo respects that approach. He just wishes that Baekhyun had given different reasons for not being an alchemist because Vita smiles knowingly. She smiles very knowingly.

Fuck.

“Is that what they told you, Baekhyun? That you were the Chosen One? Did they also tell you that—”

Kyungsoo tackles her before the idea even fully forms itself in his head. Vita goes does with a shriek that’s abruptly cutoff when her head slams into the floor. Kyungsoo lifts himself up off of her enough to see that she’s out cold. Everything’s still. The words on the ground aren’t glowing anymore, but Kyungsoo sees Baekhyun smudge them out with his sneaker anyway. Kyungsoo rolls over and lets himself hang dead on the floor.

They did it.

Baekhyun laughs, and Kyungsoo knows it’s not from anything funny. It’s relief and Kyungsoo hears Baekhyun drop to his knees and laugh more. “You tackled her. You fucking tackled her. You were faced with one of the strongest alchemists I’ve ever had the displeasure of knowing, and you chose to fucking tackle her. You didn’t even care that she was a girl. She just dropped like a sack of potatoes.” His laugh turns into a cackle.

Kyungsoo waves a hand. “What’s that Batman meme you like? The one about justice knows no gender?”

It takes Baekhyun a long while to finally stop laughing. “The hammer of justice is unisex?”

“The hammer of justice is unisex.”

Everything that comes after is quick efficient, and perfectly like tied up like a bow on a present. It's unsatisfying.

Junmyeon, in full black cloak and purple mask, visits them a couple days after the entire philosopher’s stone fiasco and gives them the official rundown. Vita Malone and John Turner are both guilty. The Learnéd Council decides that they deserve the maximum punishment, which Baekhyun later tells them means they’ll have their memories of alchemy erased (All of them are extremely unpleased with this). The official story released to both Learnéd and Natural Magic Users alike is that Mr. Turner was overcome by grief for his family and that Vita was power hungry, but both were alone in their machinations. The Learnéd Council will be taking more extreme measures to make sure nothing of this kind happens again. This statement in particular makes Baekhyun squirm in his seat in displeasure.

And then of course, there’s the matter of Baekhyun, who drags the four of them out near the woods and explains himself.

“My entire family are alchemists. I’ve grown up in the tradition since I was little. I went to the Alchemist Academy because it was expected of me, but I didn’t really enjoy it. My father, mother, and sister all work for The Council, so I’ve always been privy to the worst of my peers. When Junmyeon found me and offered to teach me about my magic, I jumped on the chance to do something different. I left home and cut off all ties. I know what you’re thinking. I’m not a spy. I’ve never once betrayed anything you’ve told me. I don’t consider myself an alchemist anymore. I’m only a Natural Magic User. I promise you.”

Baekhyun looks nervous when he ends his spiel like they’re going to expose him and kick him out. It’s a fair assessment if Kyungsoo’s being brutally honest with himself. They’ve all begun treating Baekhyun a little differently. A little more like an enemy than a friend. But none of them have told Junmyeon or any of the other officials that Baekhyun was once an alchemist. And that’s because they’re entirely unsure of what to think.

And when they’re entirely unsure of what to think, they look to Kyungsoo for guidance, which is starting to be less of the honor he once thought it was and more of an annoyance.

“You kept it from us for a long time. You saw that there was a transmutation circle as soon as we saw the school, and you didn’t let us know. In fact, you purposefully drew our attention away from it.”

Baekhyun looks miserable. The guilt on his face completely real. “I know. I should have told you that I knew it was the work of an alchemist, but I didn’t want you guys to know that I used to be one too. I panicked. I knew you wouldn’t trust me if you knew.”

There’s a part of Kyungsoo that wants to deny the accusation, but it’d be a lie. He doesn’t trust Learnéd Magic Users. They believe themselves about nature, above everything. That kind of ego is not to be trusted.

But Baekhyun’s been learning about his magic for over 2 years now. He regularly pays homage to his patron, and has never even insinuated doing something untoward with his magic. The only damning thing is his past, and Kyungsoo’s not mean enough to hold that against him even though maybe he should.

“Okay. You can stay. You’ve done nothing wrong since you’ve been here, and you are the Chosen One.” This last statement rings hollow for the group since they know they meaning of being a Chosen One, but it bolsters Baekhyun’s confidence.

“That’s right. I am the Chosen One!”

Kyungsoo manages a weak smile. “Are the rest of you okay with this?” He’s not asking for complete acceptance of who Baekhyun is. He won’t get it. He’s just asking if they can learn to accept it. This isn’t lost on them.

Sehun shrugs, “Yeah, why not. He’s proven that he’s one of us.”

“I don’t think this is the last we’ve seen of Learnéd Magic. It would be useful to have someone knowledgeable on the subject.” Kyungsoo finds himself nodding along with Minseok’s reasoning. It’s perhaps the best reason to keep Baekhyun around especially since Baekhyun seems privy to some of the more damning secrets of The Learnéd Council.

“If you step out of line, I can just eat you.”

Baekhyun snaps and finger guns in Kai’s direction. “Absolutely love that vote of confidence.”

In the distance, Char calls out to them from the back porch telling them it’s time for dinner.

“So we’re square then?”

“Yeah, we’re square,” Kyungsoo replies back without even remotely comprehending what he’s saying.

Baekhyun beams at all of them. “Great, let’s get dinner.”

Minseok and Sehun follow closely after Baekhyun, their linked hands swinging gently between them. Kai and Kyungsoo stay seated. They haven’t had a chance to talk privately since they’ve gotten back, and there are things that desperately need their attention. But for a few seconds they enjoy the silence of being alone together.

Eventually though, Kyungsoo manages to put himself in his Keeper headspace.

“The Learnéd Council is something we need to deal with. They’re not going to stop just because we’ve stopped them this time. Minseok’s right. It’s not the last that we’ve seen of them.”

Kai hums and nods along. “It’s completely suspicious that Baekhyun was picked to be the Chosen One, but no one knew that he came from an alchemist family.”

They’re on the same page then. “And the void that filled the school the first time we went didn’t strike either you or Minseok as odd because it had properties of Natural Magic.”

“There’s something bigger going on. I think we’re coming on the turning point.”

Kyungsoo thinks about his conversation with Chihiro and about the prophecy in general. “Then we’ll just have to make sure that it turns in the direction we want.”


End file.
